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by peterlk 2130 days ago
> the T-cell samples extracted through that process will be sent to a lab, where they will be genetically altered in a process developed by AGT. He said AGT believes the genetically altered T-cells will make them resistant to HIV infection and enable them to do what HIV has prevented human T-cells from doing during the course of the 40-year plus HIV epidemic – to neutralize the virus and prevent it from harming the human body.

So you'll still have the virus, and be able to give it to others, but your immune system won't be compromised?

3 comments

That's now how I read it. The treatment allows T-cells to do what they'd normally do to any other infection. And, from the first paragraph, should "enable the immune system of people who are HIV positive to permanently eliminate HIV from their body."
How can a person infect someone with HIV when it has been eliminated from his body?
Not in a medical field, but my understanding is that virus on its own is harmless (just a combination of RNA, proteins and fat), it needs cells to replicate. So if it can't infect them it won't produce copies and won't spread either.
The T-Cells will probably also attack infected T-Cells.

The immune system is super complex and self regulatory, with different Immune cell populations attacking each other in case of auto immune disease for example.