The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has turned down the findings of a study by Bengaluru-based scientists that strains of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type-I (HIV-I) have been undergoing evolutionary changes in the country.
In the wake of the findings creating some apprehensions in a section of the public health groups about the danger of this evolution, the ICMR clarified that there is no definite evidence available that HIV virus has been evolving in the country.
The Department of Health Research also made it clear that there was no plan for further research, on the study which was described as suggestive and not conclusive by the scientists who conducted the research.
The study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, was held by the HIV-AIDS laboratory at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR). The study claimed to have found that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type I (HIV-1) has been undergoing a process of evolution in India over the past decade and possibly in other parts of the world.
The study — with 165 samples — conducted from 2010 to 2011 by a group of scientists led by Professor Ranga Uday Kumar of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Unit of the centre. The scientists claimed the emergence and expansion of three to five new strains of HIV-1 rapidly replacing the standard viral strain.
The work also involved participation of institutes like YRG Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRG CARE), Chennai, St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, Freedom Foundation, Bengaluru, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Sciences, (NIMHANS), Bengaluru; and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
The scientists also had maintained that the experimental data was generated only through a cross-sectional analysis (from a single time point) and not a longitudinal analysis. Terming it just suggestive, they also said the findings should not be treated as conclusive.