Guwahati: Oxford researchers announced Thursday the discovery of a highly virulent form of HIV that has been lurking in the Netherlands for decades, but is “no cause for panic” due to the success of modern medicines.
Patients infected with the “VB variation” had 3.5 to 5.5 times more quantities of the virus in their blood than those infected with other forms, as well as a faster fading immune system, according to their findings, which were published Thursday in the journal “Science.”
Individuals with the VB version, on the other hand, exhibited similar immune system recovery and survival after starting therapy as those with other HIV variants.
In an interview with AFP, Oxford epidemiologist Chris Wymant, the paper’s primary author said “With this new viral variation, there’s no cause for panic.”
According to the researchers, the mutation first appeared in the Netherlands in the late 1980s and early 1990s but then began to diminish around 2010.
Because modern therapies appear to be effective against the variant, the research team concludes that widespread HIV treatment in the Netherlands did not contribute to the virus’s evolution and that early detection and treatment are critical.
In a press release announcing the findings, co-author Christophe Fraser, also an Oxford researcher, said, “Our findings emphasise the importance of World Health Organization guidance that individuals at risk of acquiring HIV have access to regular testing to allow early diagnosis, followed by immediate treatment.”
The research also backs up the assumption that viruses can evolve to become more virulent, a widely held belief with few real-world instances.
Another recent example is the Delta form of the new coronavirus.
According to Wymant, the finding of the HIV variation should serve as a “warning that we should never be overconfident in thinking viruses will just evolve to become milder.”
The scientists discovered 109 persons infected with the VB variety in total, with only four of them living outside of the Netherlands but still in Western Europe.
– 500 different mutations –
The HIV virus is constantly developing, to the point where each infected person has a slightly distinct strain.
The VB version, on the other hand, was discovered to include almost 500 alterations.
“Finding a new variety is commonplace,” Wyman continued, “but finding a new variant with unexpected features, particularly one with increased virulence, is not.”
By processing a large data set from the BEEHIVE project, a data gathering and analysis endeavour in Europe and Uganda, the research team discovered the VB variation in 17 HIV-positive people.
They looked at data from 6,700 HIV-positive Dutch people and found 92 more because 15 of the 17 were from the Netherlands.
The VB variant first appeared in their data in a person diagnosed in 1992 with an early version of the variant, and the most recent appearance was in 2014.
Other researchers have since discovered more people who were diagnosed with the variation after 2014.
Doctors typically monitor the reduction of CD4 T-cells, which are targeted by the HIV virus and crucial for safeguarding the body against infections, to determine how HIV affects the immune system.
CD4 drop was twice as fast in patients infected with the VB version compared to other variants, “putting them at risk of acquiring AIDS much more quickly,” according to the researchers.
The VB variation was also found to be more highly transmissible, in addition to having a greater influence on the immune system.
After analysing multiple versions of the VB variant extracted from infected patients, they got to that result.
Because they were so similar, it’s possible that the virus spread quickly to another person before accumulating many changes.
– Early diagnosis and treatment are “critical” –
“Because the VB variation causes a faster reduction in immune system strength, it’s vital that people are detected early and treated as soon as feasible,” according to the press release.
“This reduces the amount of time HIV can harm an individual’s immune system and put their health at risk,” Fraser explained.
Fraser is also the principal investigator of the BEEHIVE study, which began in 2014 and aims to learn more about how HIV virus mutations can cause varying degrees of severity in patients.
Previously, the discrepancies were assumed to be primarily due to the strength of people’s immune systems.
According to the researchers, they were unable to determine which genetic change in the VB variety caused its virulence, but they believe that future research will be able to do so.