Could This Treatment Mean No More AIDS? Researchers from
Queensland, Australia, claim that they have discovered a
potential treatment that could prevent HIV developing into AIDS,
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports. Associate
Professor David Harrich of the Queensland Institute of Medical
Research said that they figured out how to modify a protein in
HIV so that it prevents the virus from spreading. "I consider
that this is fighting fire with fire," he said. "What we’ve
actually done is taken a normal virus protein that the virus
needs to grow, and we’ve changed this protein, so that instead
of assisting the virus, it actually impedes virus replication
and does it quite strongly." Harrich stressed that although the
protein does not cure HIV, it manages to protect human cells
from AIDS during, according to trail results. "So this protein
present in immune cells would help to maintain a healthy immune
system so patients can handle normal infections," he said.
Although clinical trials on humans won’t