Researchers in Queensland have made a potentially groundbreaking discovery that could stop HIV developing into AIDS, with the unearthing of a protein that could be effectively switched off.

From the Queensland Institute of Medical Reseach, Associate Professor David Harrich explained, ‘We now have a very potent protein that can stop HIV from growing in cells’, he said. ‘Instead of being an activator of HIV, it’s an inhibitor of HIV’.

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Animal trials followed by human trials are predicted to take up to 10 years. Harrich explained that the goal would be the development of gene therapy treatment, similar to the therapy used for cancer patients.