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A new HIV variant has been discovered in the Netherlands that is more aggressive and contagious than other variants.
Other variants take an average of six to seven years to develop AIDS, but the new mutation only takes two to three years if left untreated.
Researchers also see parallels to virus mutations in the corona pandemic.
In the Netherlands a mutant of the Hi virus that causes AIDS was discovered. Dubbed the VB subtype, the new variant is more contagious and aggressive than other variants. If left untreated, it causes a 3.5- to 5.5-fold increase in viral load, researcher Chris Wymant reports with colleagues. The new form of the virus also destroys certain immune cells more effectively than other variants.
In middle-aged men, it takes around 36 months for the number of these T helper cells to reach the threshold of 350 cells per microliter of blood. The new type only needs nine months for this. With other variants, it also takes an average of six to seven years after outbreak until they lead to AIDS. With the new mutation, if left untreated, it’s two to three years. “Many patients could already have advanced HIV at the time of their diagnosis. This can worsen your prognosis despite the therapy,” writes the research team, according to the knowledge magazine “Scinexx„.
Since the cause of these effects has not yet been determined, it is all the more important that people at risk test themselves regularly for the HI virus. Co-author Christophe Fraser, from the University of Oxford, says: “Such tests reduce the length of time in which the HIV virus can go undetected and damage the immune system of the affected person and their health”. “They also ensure that HIV is suppressed as quickly as possible, and thus prevent infecting other people as well,” Fraser continues. Not much is known about the distribution of the new variant, but it is believed to have originated in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Parallels to the corona pandemic
Also for them Corona-Pandemic could be relevant to the new find. “Before our study, it was already suspected that the evolution of a new variant of HI could alter its health effects. Our discovery confirms this and provides us with a rare example of increased risk from a virus evolving to higher virulence,” writes Chris Wymant. He explains that this is the counter-evidence to the theory that the contagiousness of a pathogen decreases as the pandemic lasts. These are the current explanations for the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
“Even if it is entirely possible that SARS-CoV-2, like the corona cold virus, will develop into a less pathogenic pathogen, this is by no means inevitable. The HIV and corona pandemics show that viruses can and will develop higher virulence when natural selection favors it,” says medical scientist Joel Wertheim from the University of California in San Diego, USA.
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