According to a new study, stem cells engineered to fight HIV are effective at suppressing the virus in mice.
The new findings give hope for a cure; ideally bring an end to the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
The engineered cells are able to seek out and destroy the virus.Previous research showed that killer T cells, an immune cell that helps fight infection, were able to destroy the virus in human thymus tissue.
However, HIV infected individuals have lower counts of killer T-cells than healthy patients due to their compromised immune systems, so they don't have the ability to fight off the virus.
This most recent study shows that scientists can manipulate stem cells - which are immature cells that can develop into any type of cell - by implanting genes, turning it into killer T cells which can kill the virus in living mice.
Researchers explained that while HIV in mice is a little different than the one that effects humans, the progression of the infection closely mimics the human virus.
Dr. Scott Kitchen, the study's coauthor, said that they haven't fully developed the technology to clear the mice of HIV, but they have successfully suppressed the amount of virus that replicates.
The results show that, not only are the engineered cells capable of fighting off the virus, they are capable of helping rebuild the immune system as well.
There is currently no cure for HIV, but treatments include a cocktail of drugs that inhibits the disease's progression.
