Researchers at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts have identified 273 more proteins that the human immune-deficiency virus (HIV) attacks. The new HIV-prone proteins offers hope for a cure to AIDS by allowing researchers to test drugs that prevent the proteins from being infected with the deadly virus.

According to the study of the researchers published in Science Express on Thursday, the identification of the new proteins entailed the tedious scanning of 21,000 human genes. The researchers used short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to disrupt each gene's ability to produce a certain protein and then exposed it to HIV to see if the virus replicates in cells. HIV propagation indicates that a protein hosts the virus.

Current AIDS drugs target the virus to stop it from spreading. However, the virus mutates to become immune to the drugs. Researchers are now using drugs on proteins that HIV attacks to stop the virus' propagation.

Before the identification of the 273 HIV-prone proteins, only 36 proteins are known to spread the AIDS virus. Now, researchers will have more proteins on which to test drugs against HIV.

CBCnews.ca quoted Harvard Medical School professor and senior author Stephen Elledge as saying, "The virus would not be able to mutate to overcome drugs that interact with these proteins."