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An American living in Berlin suffered from both AIDS and leukemia.  Hoping to extend his life, the 42-year-old underwent a bone marrow transplant for leukemia, but instead he might have just won his battle against AIDS.

The virus has been undetected in the American’s body for nearly 600 days now.  He has stopped taking his retroantivirals, which in your average AIDS patient would cause the virus to stampede the body within days or weeks.

But that isn’t the case here, thanks to 39 year-old hemotologist Dr. Gero Hutter (left) and his bone marrow gambit. MORE »

Wired has a look at what could be a possible tool in the fight against HIV.? Some humans have a mutation that makes them resistant to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Viruses enter cells and take them over, but to get inside, they need a handhold. HIV pulls itself in by grabbing onto a protein called CCR5, which decorates the surface of T-cells, which are one of the two major types of white blood cells and play an important role in helping the body fight infections. Back in the 1990’s, researchers took interest in a handful of promiscuous gay men who were able to engage in sexual relations with their HIV-positive partners with impunity. Most of them had a mutation that kept their cells from producing normal CCR5 protein.

Armed with that knowledge, scientists have developed several tactics to block the production of CCR5 or perturb its shape so that the HIV virus can’t grab onto it during the first step of its hijacking attempt. The strategy is much akin to cutting your hair before a wrestling match: It gives your opponent one less thing to grab onto.

In the latest version of this defense, Carl June and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania used a highly engineered protein, called a zinc finger nuclease, to clip the CCR5 gene out of some T-cells. Left without the recipe for that protein, the cells are nearly impenetrable. His report appeared on the Nature Biotechnology website yesterday.

The tests were done on mice and there is, at this time, no indication that this technique would work on humans, but scientists are positing that doctors could remove T-cells from infected humans and manipulate the genome, return it to the patient.? Now, already infected patients won’t get rid of HIV/AIDS, but the manipulated T-cells would allow the infected person to raise their white blood cell count and allow them to fight off secondary diseases, which is the downfall for many infected people.

No, this isn’t a cure, but it is another weapon to help eradicate this virus.? Not sure if this technique, which sound costly, would at all be available in African - the one place that needs all the help it can get in their fight against HIV/AIDS.

Well, not everyone. But it’s no secret that Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV or suffering from AIDS. Now Gambia’s president, Yahya Jammeh, has openly admitted he has discovered a cure for AIDS, which consists of an herbal green paste, bananas and some sort of bitter drink.

That sound you hear is the sound of skeptical eyebrows being raised in all corners of the world, but mostly at the World Health Organization.

?Whatever you do, there are bound to be skeptics, but I can tell you my method is foolproof,? President Yahya Jammeh told an Associated Press reporter, surrounded by bodyguards in his presidential compound. ?Mine is not an argument, mine is a proof. It?s a declaration. I can cure AIDS and I will.?

The cure is free of charge to Gambians, but it requires them to stop taking their anti-viral medications - a move which would seriously jeopardize their already weakened immune systems.

And this from the World Health Organization’s Dr. Antonio Filipe Jr.:

WHO?s Filipe was diplomatic about Jammeh?s claims, saying his organization respects the president?s point of view. But, he added: ?As the World Health Organization, we would like to state quite clearly the following ? No. 1: so far there is no cure for AIDS.?

It’s understandable that the Gambian president would want to provide hope to his countrymen when so often there is very little. This pandemic should be considered a genocide. Sure the deaths of millions are not being sanctioned by governments, not like they are in the Sudan, but it’s evident that scientists have the ability to stem the tide of AIDS and HIV and at the very least educate people to curb the spread of this disease.

After all, it shouldn’t just be Magic Johnson who gets to prolong his life. Even if he is one of the top 5 NBA players of all-time. Okay, so maybe that’s a good excuse as any. But shouldn’t people in Africa have that same opportunity? And I’m not going out on a limb by saying the cure isn’t going to come from a green herbal paste and bananas.