A team of researchers from the University of Arizona (USA) and Cambridge (UK) has managed to reconstruct the origins of the AIDS pandemic thanks to a revolutionary new technique. Their results indicate that HIV-1, the cause of the majority of AIDS virus infections in the world, jumped from the Caribbean to New York City around 1970, causing the pandemic later.
The new study has used a new system that allows to analyze the genetic material of serum samples of patients with HIV taken before the AIDS disease was known; that is, genetic material from tissue samples over 40 years of age. In addition, the supposed “patient zero” , Gaetan Dugas, has ceased to be after this investigation, since the analysis of the complete genome of this man indicates that there is no biological or historical evidence to believe that he triggered the epidemic in North America.
Phylogenetic analyzes show that the virus’s leap to the United States took place in 1970, specifically in New York, which suggests that HIV spread from here to San Francisco and, possibly, to other places in California, a place where patients from AIDS were first recognized in 1981.
The method used in the research provides an unprecedented insight into the origins of the epidemic in North America , helping to understand how pathogens move through populations and to design much more effective strategies against them.
“ Being able to look back in time and rebuild the HIV pandemic is encouraging. Now we can see a future in which, even if the virus is not completely eliminated, any new transmission in large areas of the world could be stopped, ”explains Michael Worobey, leader of the work.
The study has been published in the journal Nature.
