Broken Weapon: Mutation disarms HIV-fighting gene

A gene that once produced a small protein able to prevent HIV from infecting cells now lies unusable in the human genome, scientists have found. In addition to suggesting a new weapon in the battle against AIDS, this so-called pseudogene reignites speculation about why infection with HIV kills people but not nonhuman primates.

Several years ago, researchers found that rhesus monkeys have a gene encoding a novel microbe-killing protein (SN: 10/30/99, p.