Trieste team's breakthrough could lead to new AIDS drugs

(ANSA) - Trieste, March 2 - A group of researchers at Trieste's International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) has found the "dens" where HIV cells hide until they become "invisible". The breakthrough, which could lead to the development of new AIDS drugs, was made possible after the team, led by Professor Mauro Giacca, photographed the structure of HIV lymphoid cell nuclei. The study was published on Tuesday on the website of highly respected journal Nature. The AIDS virus manages to insert its DNA into the cells that it infects to become part of their genetic makeup. But up to now why the virus decides to combine with only some of the 20,000 human genes and how it manages to hide from medicines inside these genes had been a mystery.

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Italy study finds HIV's 'hiding places' - update