Scientists Find Genetic Factor That Might Affect Risk of AIDS

British scientists have uncovered the first evidence that genetic factors might play a role in a person’s susceptibility to the AIDS virus, a published report said Sunday.

A team of British researchers have identified a form of an inherited protein that appears to reduce vulnerability to infection by the AIDS virus and to slow development of the disease among those who are exposed, the New York Times reported.

The scientists also found that people with a different genetic variant of the same protein were highly susceptible to AIDS infection and disease, it said.

The findings were reported by Dr. Anthony Pinching of St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London in the Lancet, a leading London medical journal, the paper said.

The protein was identified as Gc, for group specific component. All people have Gc in their blood and on cell surfaces, but they inherit it in one of six combinations of three major genetic sub types, the report said.

One difference in the sub types is the amount of sialic acid, which scientists suspect may help the AIDS virus destroy white blood cells that play a crucial role in the immune system.

The study found that men who had repeatedly had sex with known AIDS victims but had not been infected were far more likely to have the form of Gc that has no sialic acid. Conversely, men who had become infected and those who had developed the severe complications were far more likely to carry the Gc variant with the highest amount of sialic acid.

Pinching stressed that the finding is preliminary because it is based on the study of 375 people, including 203 homosexual men, some of them AIDS carriers and some of them not, the paper said.