Experiments envision HIV immunity

Chinese scientists are working on new projects inspired by the documented case of a man who was cured of AIDS. They hope eventually find a way to ensure that humans are born with immunity to the disease.

Nine years ago, a 41-year-old man, who has since been dubbed the "Berlin patient", was close to death and in the advanced stages of both AIDS and leukemia. Doctors gave him a stem cell transplant from an HIV-resistant donor, and miraculously cured both conditions, making him arguably the first person ever to be cured of AIDS.

The remarkable case shed light on CCR5 - a receptor in humans that helps HIV enter cells. The bone-marrow transplant had changed the Berlin patient's gene to a mutation called CCR5-delta32, which blocks HIV.