A team of California scientists has developed HIV resistant cells. The University of Southern California researchers hope their findings could one day be applied to people.
Cells contain molecules that act as gatekeepers. This is how good things, like nutrients, get in, and also how bad things, like HIV, enter a cell.
USC researchers invented a cell with HIV resistant molecules. They took those cells, put them in HIV infected mice, and monitored. What they found is the little lab rodents were able to beat one of the biggest killers on earth.
The Mice cells with their anti-HIV molecules essentially quarantined the infection, suppressing it fully, meaning HIV never turned into AIDS.
These gatekeeper molecules come from a gene found in humans, and the USC researchers are hopeful that gene could replace anti-retroviral treatments. Their findings appear in the journal, Nature Biotechnology.
