The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE "and was presented at a news conference by researchers from Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and the Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer, has shown that the disease does not progress in the patient whose Dendritic cells are capable of producing levels of alpha-defensins molecules above normal, which offers new therapeutic expectations, as it would be possible if patients produce more 'alpha-defensins ", also enhance their ability to survive against the disease .

The study indicates that infection is equal for all concerned, enjoy a high presence of alpha-defensins or not, however, when found in large quantity, they make, but the virus never disappears from the blood, can not travel throughout the rest of the immune system. A transit that HIV manages with ease as usual.

The investigation is the result of three years work by scientists at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and is part of the doctoral dissertation by Marta Rodriguez-Garcia, winner 'Emili Letang' of the clinician, and current postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University in United States.

This discovery may provide a better understanding and some hints about how to address the patient's resistance to infection and opens a new avenue for research into alternative therapies to control AIDS, since "if we can encourage the segregation of these molecules, we can achieve the patient to keep under control the disease, according to Josep Maria Gatell, Chief of Infectious Disease Clinic and head of the Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer.