Word: variants
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...addition, the stem cells are specific to only a certain type of the disease, which afflicts less than five percent of sufferers, Eggan said. But the study authors said research on this less-common variant could have broader applications, if, as they hope, the disease mechanism is similar for most or all types of Lou Gehrig's disease despite different initial triggers in the vast majority of ALS patients...
...personnel who had been followed over decades, the roughly 1,200 carriers of the trait, all of whom were African-American, were 40% more likely after adjustments to be infected with HIV than noncarriers. From that sample, Weiss and his colleagues extrapolated the infection risk attributable to the gene variant in Africa, where a 40% increased susceptibility to infection translates to about 11% of all infections...
Interestingly, among the servicemen who were infected with HIV, those who carried the gene variant lived on average two years longer than noncarriers. "We still can't say exactly why," Weiss says. And though the effect of this gene variant, if confirmed, could help explain a huge number of HIV infections, it still cannot come close to explaining the AIDS burden of Africa. Nearly 70% of all HIV-positive people in the world live in sub-Saharan Africa, and prevalence rates in adults in some African countries top 20%. What's more, the gene variant is most common in West...
...whether his new findings, if replicated, may help guide current policy, Weiss says, "The straight answer is no. It doesn't really help us think about a vaccine." He adds, "It also doesn't help in other ideas about prevention." Eventually, however, researchers hope to learn how the gene variant slows progression of the AIDS, which may inspire new treatments...
...legislation aims to combat the spread of France's variant of the "drinking to get drunk" behavior that has long been a problem in the U.K. and on American college campuses. But it is bound to discourage alcohol consumption among adults, too. Its measures include prohibiting alcohol sales in gas stations; absent, however, is the banning of happy hour in bars and cafés, as health experts have urged...