Clinical trials for a new technique pioneered by Danish researchers are underway, and doctors are optimistic

Danish researchers are readying human trials for a potentially life-saving new HIV treatment. Already, when tested on infected human skin cells, the technique has proved effective for killing the virus. And if the treatment is deemed a success in human trials, we might be just a few months away from a bona fide cure for AIDS.

The process can be best understood in two main steps:

1. Normally, the HIV virus hides out in "reservoirs" it builds for itself inside infected DNA cells. But this treatment flushes HIV from behind its battlements using a class of compounds called HDAC inhibitors, which are typically used to treat cancer.

2. Once HIV is flushed from its hideout, the body's own immune system — turbo-charged by a separate vaccination — can then seek out the newly vulnerable virus and eliminate it. The hope is that every single bit of the HIV virus becomes