Scientists make gene link to African HIV epidemic

A genetic variant peculiar to Africans substantially raises their risk of infection with HIV, according to research that suggests evolved susceptibility may be helping to drive the continent’s Aids epidemic. 

The 90 per cent of Africans who carry the DNA variation are 40 per cent more likely to contract HIV than those without it, after similar exposure to the virus, scientists from Britain and America have found. 

As the genetic change is common among people of African ancestry but virtually unknown among other ethnic groups, it could explain in part why HIV-Aids is more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. The United Nations estimates that 22.5 million people there are HIV-positive, more than two thirds of the global total of approximately 33.2 million. 

The variant, known as “Duffy-negative”, is so common in Africa that it could be responsible for about 11 per cent of the continent’s HIV burden, or 2.5 million cases, scientists said.

“It is an Africa-specific variant, which is why it’s so interesting in the context of Aids research,” said Robin Weiss, Professor of Infection and Immunity at University College London, a member of the study team. 

“It could certainly be a contributing factor to the scale of the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. It’s the first time, so far as we understand, that a genetic factor that increases susceptibility to infection has come into play.” 

Sexual behaviour is also involved in the epidemic in Africa, the only part of the world in which it predominantly affects heterosexuals. 

The Duffy-negative gene has probably spread so widely through the African population because it provides resistance to a form of malaria called Plasmodium vivax. Professor Weiss believes it may also once have increased resistance against a precursor of the most deadly malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. 

These traits would have been highly advantageous in evolutionary Africa. As HIV is a new human pathogen, thought to have jumped from chimpanzees to people between 1910 and 1950, the gene’s effect on the virus would have had no negative consequences until recently. “Something that protected against malaria in the past is now leaving the host more susceptible to HIV,” Professor Weiss said. 

Matthew Dolan, of the San Antonio Military Medical Centre in Texas, said: “After thousands of years of adaptation, this Duffy variant rose to high frequency because it helped protect against malaria. Now, with another global pandemic on the scene, this same variant renders people more susceptible to HIV. It shows the complex interplay between historically important diseases and susceptibility in contemporary times.” 

For the study, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, scientists examined a group of US Air Force personnel, of whom more than 1,200 are HIV-positive, and who have been followed for nearly 22 years. The Duffy-negative genotype was seen almost exclusively in African-Americans. 

A continent cursed

— Sub-Saharan Africa is the globe’s most Aids-affected region. In 2005, 24.5 million of its people were living with HIV and of all Aids sufferers, 64 per cent live there 

— In 2005, about 2.7 million people became infected with HIV and more than two million died 

— More than two million children under 15 are HIV-positive and more than 90 per cent live in Africa. continues here

Men's brains really are wired differently from women's

It is perhaps the one thing any arguing couple will agree on - men and women just aren't on the same wavelength. 

And, at last, there is scientific proof to explain the perennial conflict. 

Researchers have finally been able to show how the male and female brain are poles apart. 

The study found that women devote more brain inches to decision-making, emotions and, perhaps surprisingly given their poor reputation for map-reading, to spatial navigation. 

The male brain, however, appears to conform to stereotype, with a bigger emphasis on sex. 

But the gender gap doesn't end there, with men and women using different methods to process pain and emotions. 

Even differing appetites for illegal drugs have their roots in the architecture of the brain, the researchers found after measuring and comparing 45 brain regions in healthy men and women. 

The research contradicts the long-held theory that the differences in the way the sexes think are caused by social pressure and upbringing, or the action of sex hormones. 

New Scientist magazine reports: 'For the most part, the basic architecture of the brain, and its fundamental workings, were thought to be the same for both sexes.' 

But it adds: 'Research is revealing that male and female brains are built from markedly different genetic blueprints, which create numerous anatomical differences. 

'There are also differences in the circuitry that wires them up and the chemicals that transmit messages. All this is pointing towards the conclusion that there is not just one kind of human brain, but two.' 

Research from the elite Harvard Medical School in the U.S. shows the relative sizes of many of the structures inside the female brain are different from those of males. 

Parts of the frontal lobe, which houses decision-making and problem-solving, are proportionally larger in women. More space is also devoted to short-term memory and spatial navigation. 

Research from the University of California found the sexes use different sides of the brain to process emotions, with men choosing the left and women the right. 

Experiments have also flagged up differences in the brain circuits used to dampen pain, which could perhaps explain why men tend to find morphine more effective than women. 

Even the finding that women tend to become addicted to cocaine more quickly than men could be due to differences in brain structure. 

The gender gap has only just come to light because neuroscientists traditionally carried out their studies on male brains, be they animal or human, New Scientist said.

Pain researcher Jeff Mogil, of McGill University in Montreal, said: 'It's scandalous. Women are the most common pain sufferers, and yet our model for basic pain research is the male rat. 

'Every year or two, we write a paper that says that something someone reported earlier is actually only true in males. We keep making people look bad. They are missing stuff completely.' 

Cary Cooper, professor of psychology and health at Lancaster University, who specialises in gender divisions, said: 'Men and women are polar opposites but we knew that from the start.

British pensioner creates world's biggest family tree - after tracing 10,000 ancestors

A pensioner is claiming a world record for the biggest family tree after tracing nearly 10,000 relatives and ancestors.

Roy Blackmore says he had discovered that his ancestors include farmers, monks, a Wild West cowboy, Civil War soldiers, a king of France - and even William the Conqueror and Alfred the Great.

The 76-year-old from Taunton, Somerset, has spent 28 years and around £20,000 piecing together his family history.
Most of his research was carried out before the arrival of the internet, meaning he had to travel the country to study archives, cemetery records and census registers.

His tree stretches back to the Cerdick family in 500 AD and includes William the Conqueror in the 11th century and Alfred the Great in 880 AD.

He has listed 9,390 ancestors and relatives and has applied to the Guinness Book of Records to claim the title for the world's largest documented family tree.

Roy, of Taunton, Somerset, said: "It's been a very interesting journey which has taken some surprising twists and turns. One of the most shocking discoveries was that I'm a descendant of Alfred the Great.

"My interest started after I was orphaned as a child and and became curious about my family background. Since then, I have been searching high and low for information on my family.

"There have been some very frustrating times when I seemingly hit a brick wall. But there is always a way around or over an obstacle and you just have to persevere.

"When I started I never planned to go back that far but the more I looked the more interested I became. It's been incredibly interesting.

"I could go back further into my French descendants but I think I'll leave it as it is. I think I'll leave it there."

Roy, a former buyer for a perfume company, was fostered along with three of his six brothers and sisters when their parents Hubert and Ida died in 1931.

He began developing his family tree in 1980 and spent up to five hours a day scouring documents he collected from archives, libraries, cemetery records and census registers in London.

His tree stretches back to the Cerdick family in 500 AD and includes the French Royal family and Hugh Capet - a 10th century King of France.

Roy can also link himself through 37 generations to William the Conqueror in the 11th Century and 45 generations to Alfred the Great in 880AD.

He said: "The records show that my family were yeoman from around the 10th century when monks first started recording births. continues here

Well done to Mr Blackmore in tracing his family tree, it is I should imagine an enjoyable and rather fascinating pastime, we all come from somewhere and we are all unique. A family tree is more than a topic of study though, more than an interesting pastime, it is the continuance of a unique set of genes, genes that have evolved quite naturally through the ages. Mr Blackmore remarks that, “My grandchildren aren't too interested but I'm sure they will want to know more about their family as they grow older”. We would hope they do however, lack of interest in history or “where we came from” cannot be put down merely to youth, there has been a conscious effort to distort or even negate our history, until we now have the situation whereby many young people, have neither the interest nor indeed the desire to preserve their unique genotype. In fact that once most loathed of acts, miscegenation is now almost the norm, there is though, still the recognition that such an act is contemptible, albeit it a now unspoken recognition.

Miscegenation or race-mixing ruins forever the family tree, the unique genotype, introducing alien elements both into the gene pool and the nation, we can of course lie, pretend that there is nothing wrong with this however, such an act is both selfish and destructive. To a large degree miscegenation is still the preserve of the shameless, the slattern, attractive only to low women and aging white males however, this is changing, as the relentless tide of pro-destructive television programmes take their toll, the very word itself, programme is more descriptive than we first realised in that, the little box in the corner, programmes us to accept things we perhaps wouldn’t, if we were not subconsciously told to do so. Television holds such power; it has the capacity to create a seemingly personal world, between the viewer and itself, to fully immerse the viewer in a world of its own making.

On television miscegenation is never an evil, never the threat it is in reality, homosexuals are always funny, not skulking around in public toilets “cottaging” or despoiling beauty-spots with their aberrant behaviour, negroes are always so really very nice, decent chaps, caring, funny, sensitive, law-abiding, yet beset by evil bigoted white racists, said racists exhibiting quite appalling character traits. The negro invariably is portrayed as the victim, getting both the girl and one supposes the sympathy, television now, knowing it has corrupted the minds of many young white girls, has set out to corrupt a harder target the young white male, soap operas, now depict many inter-racial relationships as occurring between a negress and a white-male.

Yet the black female, is not as a rule attractive to the white male, not that is, unless there are some quite white features in evidence, one has only to look to black female celebrities to see that this is the case, in almost all cases the female in question exhibits white characteristics physically. Try it yourself, create a test, write down as many famous black females as you can and then check, in most cases white characteristics will be quite dominate. Of course soft focus and make-up departments will aid this process and many that appear less negroid, will in fact not come over quite so attractive in the flesh, it is quite simply fact, that the more white features held by “black” female celebrities, the more attractive they are to the masses. Even within the black community in almost any setting, lighter skin tone and more European-like features, are considered more attractive, millions of pounds are spent every year on skin lighting creams and hair straightening products.

Some cultures place themselves at considerable risk health-wise, merely to look a little whiter, to appear more attractive to a potential mate, of course our own women lie beneath harmful rays, believing quite erroneously as it happens, that a tanned skin is more attractive for similar reasons. Miscegenation, race-mixing is disastrous to whites given that the end product is black, it is quite simply impossible, for a mixed race couple to produce a white child, although there are cases where to the eye, a child can appear white however, in general this is not the case. People rant and rave over Islam playing up what is merely a religion, as thee threat to the west, I beg to differ the greatest threat to the west is race-mixing, for once the gene-pool is mixed there is no come- back no return.

In the UK mixed race individuals are the fastest growing “community” and must therefore be considered the greatest threat, I am a racialist, I hide behind nothing, I state my case and as a racialist I recognise that every race, be it white, black or oriental must be preserved must be protected. Quite simply in numerical terms the white race faces the greatest threat, our numbers simply cannot survive constant intermixture, at some point we will on current trends die out. There will be no-more Mr Blackmore’s able to trace his family tree, at least no white Mr Blackmore’s, we work to protect the elephant, the polar bear all sorts of creatures from extinction, isn’t it about time we worked to protect ourselves. 14