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African Americans accounted for 44 percent of new HIV infections in 2010 according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In that same year, HIV was the 5th leading cause of death for Black men and 7th leading cause of death for Black women between the ages of 25-44. In 2014, we may be one step closer to a cure for this disease that continues to disproportionately affect Black lives.
Researchers at Philadelphia’s Temple University School of Medicine have, for the first time, successfully found a way to destroy the HIV-1 virus from human cells.
“This is one important step on the path toward a permanent cure for AIDS,” said Kamel Khalili, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Temple.
In an interview with CBS, Dr. Khalili breaks down the “gene surgery” he and his team performed:
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“Basically, converting infected cells to un-infected cells and that is very important because the currant therapy cannot eliminate the virus from cells…we have a cure for HIV elimination. We have a system to eliminate HIV from the cells in the laboratory.”
Full details of the study were published July 21 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Khalili says that the team is working on strategies for preclinical studies, and eventually, will test in clinical trials on animals and humans. “We want to eradicate every single copy of HIV-1 from the patient. That will cure AIDS. I think this technology is the way we can do it.”
A cure has been a long time coming and this is definitely research to watch for.
Visit the BlackDoctor.org HIV/AIDS center for more articles.
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