Scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine have found a potential cure for patients infected with HIV. Scientists at the Temple University school published a study in the Nature journal earlier this month showing that they can now effectively completely remove the virus from the DNA of human cells. Medicalxpress.com reports: According to senior investigator on the new study, Kamel Khalili, PhD, Laura H. Carnell Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience, Director of the Center for Neurovirology, and Director of the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM), “Antiretroviral drugs are very good at controlling HIV infection. But patients on antiretroviral therapy who stop taking the drugs suffer a rapid rebound in HIV replication.” The presence of numerous copies of HIV weakens the immune system and eventually causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Curing HIV/AIDS—which has claimed the lives of more than 25 million people since it was first discovered in the 1980s – is the ultimate goal in HIV research. But eliminating the virus after it has become integrated into CD4+ T-cells, the cells primarily infected with HIV, has proven difficult. Recent attempts have focused on intentionally reactivating [...]