*Scientists find HIV-AIDs full cure*

*A British man with HIV undergoing a pioneering treatment to

cure him of the disease has shown "remarkable" progress,

doctors have told a newspaper.

Scientists treating the 44-year-old patient are now hopeful of

a breakthrough in what has been described as "one of the

first serious attempts at a full cure for HIV*.

*Results showed the man's most recent blood test showed no

detectable HIV was present.

Results showed the man's most recent blood test showed no

detectable HIV was present.

The man, who has remained anonymous, is the first of 50

people to complete a trial using the two-stage attack on the

deadly virus.*

*The research is being carried out by a collaboration of five of

Britain's top universities organised by the National Health

Service.

Mark Samuels, managing director of the National Institute for

Health Research Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure,

told the Sunday Times: "This is one of the first serious

attempts at a full cure for HIV. We are exploring the real

possibility of curing HIV.*

*"This is a huge challenge and it's still early days but the

progress has been remarkable."

The trial patient told the newspaper that recent blood tests

showed no detectable HIV virus was present, although it was

too early to confirm that the treatment had worked.*

*The new therapy aims to overcome a major barrier to clearing

the virus from a sufferer's body that has challenged

researchers for decades.

Current methods using antiretroviral therapies (Art) fall short

of ridding patients of HIV, as the virus can hide out of the

drugs' reach in the immune system's T-cells.*

*By sheltering in dormant T-cells the virus can later take over

its host and use it to produce thousands of copies of itself,

should Art no longer work.

The research by Oxford and Cambridge universities, Imperial

College London, University College London, and King's

College London, is testing a "kick and kill" technique to first

expose, then destroy the virus.*

*First a vaccine helps the body find infected T-cells. This is

then followed by a course of the drug Vorinostat that

awakens the dormant T-cells, which then begin producing

HIV proteins that act as a homing beacon to the immune

system.

Imperial College London consultant physician Professor

Sarah Fidler said the treatment worked in the laboratory and

there was "good evidence" it will work in patients.

However she added: "We must stress we are still a long way

from any actual therapy *