There has been a long battle in the fight against HIV, health professionals have come a long way in treatments for people that are infected with the virus; even giving these people a somewhat normal long lasting life. Well the fight has not stopped medical researchers are still looking for a cure for the highly sophisticated virus.
Recently a team of doctors discovered that certain immune cells can starve the HIV virus to death, not letting it replicate. These cells are macrophages and dendritic cells. Instead of replicating they literally eat the virus or bacteria that have invaded the body, then after they do this they also die. So if the HIV virus were to try and invade this cell and replicate it wouldn't work, the cell would simply eat the virus. The substance that these cells contain is called SAMHD1, it breaks down the building blocks of DNA, not allowing the cell to replicate. The cells that do not contain this substance or contain a very little amount have dNTPs instead and this substance makes new copies of the DNA.
The HIV virus doesn't usually attack macrophages and dendritic cells they attack cells like the CD4 or T-cells, which function by making copies of itself. It would be perfect if we could just take away dNTPs of the infected cells so they would stop replicating and spreading the virus, but this would deplete the body of regular immune response. Letting other less harmful organisms destroy the body. It is still not clear on how retro-virus treatment can contribute to the destruction of the HIV virus, but this information is definitely helpful in finding a way to stop this world crippling virus.
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