On Tuesday, scientists announced they may have found a "spontaneous cure" for AIDS, according to Yahoo News.
Two men seemed to have been "spontaneously cured" of the virus, and French scientists think they have identified the genetic mechanism responsible.
Both men were infected with HIV, but never developed AIDS. The AIDS-causing virus was deactivated because of a tainted genetic code, according to Yahoo News. A 57-year-old man, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1985, and a 23-year-old, who was diagnosed in 2011, were studied and their virus genomes were sequenced.
Though both men are HIV-positive, tests could not detect the virus in their blood, and the virus could not replicate because of mutations in genetic code.
Scientists believe increased activity of an enzyme named APOBEC is what caused the alteration of the virus.
CD4 immune cells are invaded by the HIV virus, which then replicates and reprograms the cells to churn out more virus. Fewer than one percent of those infected with the virus are able to suppress replication and keep the virus virtually undetectable. The members of that one percent are known as "elite controllers." Scientists are trying to figure out how they control the virus and keep replication at bay.
"The work opens up therapeutic avenues for a cure, using or stimulating this enzyme, and avenues for identifying individuals among newly-infected patients who have a chance of a spontaneous cure," the research team said.
The evolution between humans and a virus is known as "endogenization," Yahoo News reported. DNA adapts and immunity is passed on to offspring, like it has with a similar virus in koalas.
"We propose that HIV cure may occur through HIV endogenization in humans," the team wrote. "These findings suggest that without therapeutic and prophylactic strategies, after several decades of HIV/host integrations and millions of deaths, it is likely that a few individuals might have endogenized and neutralized the virus and transmitted it to their progeny."
"We believe that the persistence of HIV DNA can lead to cure, and protection, from HIV."
