Science enthusiasts at the Temple University School of Medicine in the US has just claimed that they managed to take the HIV virus away from cultured human cells successfully while carrying out a series of experiments in laboratory conditions.

The experiments are detailed in a publication of the National Academy of Sciences this past July 21. The result is called a breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. However, the scientists behind this research project would say that it would still take a while until the findings of the investigation can be used to treat HIV virus infections in human patients.

In their paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Kamel Khalili and colleagues explain that the experiments were done on the HIV-1 virus, in which case is the most common and pathogenic strain. Like its brothers and sisters, HIV-1 likes to insert its genome permanently into the victims' DNA. As a result, those who are infected by this virus have no other options but to keep its behavior under control, taking drugs for the rest of their lives.

In order to combat the HIV-1 genome from the cultured human cells, researchers used a DNA-snipping enzyme known as nuclease and a targeting strand of RNA dubbed guide RNA (gRNA). With these molecular tools, they were able to track down the virus genome and excised it.

The DNA-snipping enzyme and the targeting strand of RNA were tested on more than just one cell type, and proved surprisingly efficient at locating and eliminating the HIV-1 genome every time they were put to work, Kamel Khalili and colleagues maintain.

The Temple University School of Medicine researchers say that they intend to continue their research, and hope that they will be given permission to roll out clinical trials, which includes human patients, and attempt to cure HIV virus infections in people.