Scientists get a breakthrough in HIV research

Scientists have claimed to have reached a major breakthrough in the field of HIV research. According to the US researchers a system that renders certain types of immune cells impervious to HIV infection have been identified. This new finding may lead to the way to its eradication from the body.

The system's two important components are high levels of a molecule that becomes embedded in viral DNA like a code written in invisible ink and an enzyme that, when it reads the code, switches from repairing the DNA to chopping it up into pieces that becomes unusable.

Johns Hopkins researchers are of the opinion that this discovery heralds a new approach to eradicating HIV from the body, says the reports of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"For decades, we have seen conflicting reports on whether each of these components helped protect cells from viruses," James Stivers, professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at the Johns Hopkins Medicine's Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, who led the study, has been quoted as saying.

"By plotting how much of each are found in different types of cells, as well as the cells' response to HIV, we learned that both are needed to get the protective effect," said Stivers, according to a John Hopkins' statement.

--with inputs from IANS