Researchers believe to have completely cured several HIV-afflicted mice by "cutting" the virus out of the cells it had invaded.
The new method could be the only-known way to completely eradicate an HIV virus without completely destroying the cells, The Local reported. The researchers said the method in more than 90 percent effective in identifying and "disassembling DNA.
"There are various methods and similar approaches, but removing the virus from infected cells is unique," Professor Joachim Hauber, head of the antiviral strategy section at partner research institute, Hamburg's Heinrich Pette Institute, said.
The researchers are now waiting on funding to start clinical trials on the method. The researcher said once the next steps are taken the 'molecular scissors' could be completed within a decade.
"Blood would be taken from patients and the stem cells which can form blood cells, removed," Hauber said.
The stem cells would be genetically altered with an "HIV-cutting enzyme" and then reintroduced back into the patient. The team hopes the genetically altered cells would reproduce and eventually eradicate the virus from all infected cells.
So far, the technique has only been tested on mice.
"The amount of virus was clearly reduced, and even no longer to be found in the blood," Hauber said.
"It is one of the most exciting things of all," he said. "There is a vague hope of cure, but that must first be proven."
The researchers employed a process of "mutation and selection" to create the HIV-destroying enzyme. The HI-pathogen is a retrovirus which gets into the genetic substance in DNA," Professor Frank Buchholz said. The enzyme has the ability to "cut up" double-helix DNA and rearrange it into a different sequence.
The researchers were able to program the enzyme to seek out the HIV pattern and disassemble it.
"The potential is not being used," Hauber said, referring to the fact that pharmaceutical companies had taken little interest in investing in the study.
