A research group supported by the US' National Institutes of Health (NIH) has blocked HIV infection in the test tube by inactivating a human protein expressed in key immune cells - a process that may offer a way to circumvent problems with drug resistance. In the new study, Pamela Schwartzberg, M.D., Ph.D., a senior investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of NIH; Andrew J. Henderson, Ph.D., of Boston University; and their colleagues used a chemical inhibitor and a type of genetic inhibitor, called RNA interference, to inactivate a human protein called interleukin-2-inducible T cell kinase (ITK) in key human immune cells called T cells.

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