The research, published online in the journal Retrovirology, indicates an existing drug -- miltefosine -- may promote cells being used by HIV as safe-havens to commit "cell suicide."
The drug -- miltefosine also known as Impavido, first identified in Germany in the early 1980s as a potential breast cancer treatment -- is presently used to treat a parasitic infection called leishmaniasis, or sandfly disease.
Past studies by this University of Rochester research team determined the macrophage -- a scavenger cell that normally rids the body of pathogens and other "debris" -- can actually become a "safe-haven" and provide a reservoir for HIV.
Operating from these havens, HIV can go on to make the body vulnerable to infections and progress to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
