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Study has shown scientists how to find and measure 'good cells' that can recognise and kill infected cells, but they still do not know how to generate them

By Claire Bates

PUBLISHED: 11:13 EST, 11 June 2012 | UPDATED: 11:13 EST, 11 June 2012

It has long been known that a tiny minority of people infected with HIV have a natural ability to fight off the deadly AIDS virus. Scientists said they are now a step closer to understanding why.

In a study they said holds promise for an HIV vaccine, researchers from four countries reported the secret lies not in the number of infection-killing cells a person has, but in how well they work.

Only about one person in 300 has the ability to control the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) without drugs, using a strain of 'killer' cells called cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) cells, previous research has found.

Mature HIV virus infection (blue) in human lymphatic tissue. One in 300 people have 'killer' cells that recognise and destroy the HIV infection

Taking that discovery further, scientists from the United States, Canada, Japan and Germany reported that the strain has molecules called receptors that are better able to identify HIV-infected white blood cells for attack.

Until now, it was well known that people with HIV 'have tonnes of these killer cells,' said Bruce Walker, an infectious diseases expert at the Ragon Institute in Massachusetts.

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HIV: People with rare natural ability to fight AIDS virus have potent 'killer' cells that recognise and destroy ...