As the search for HIV and AIDS cure continues, more and more approaches are being tested. In the most recent HIV cure update, a medicinal plant is found to be potent against HIV/AIDS.

In the past years, researchers and medical experts relied on antiretroviral medication, like Azidothymidine (AZT) to fight HIV/AIDS. However, apart from the said approach, some experts managed to discover are more powerful anti-HIV compound coming from a traditionally used medicinal plant, according to Deccan Chronicles.

Based on the latest HIV cure update, a patentiflorin A, is a compound derived from the willow-leaved Justicia. Such compound is able to inhibit an enzyme needed by the virus to incorporate its own genetic code into the human DNA.

"Patentiflorin A was able to inhibit the action of reverse transcriptase much more effectively than AZT, and was able to do this both in the earliest stages of HIV infection when the virus enters macrophage cells, and alter infection when it is present in T cells of the immune system, UIC News Center quoted Lijun Rong, professor of microbiology and immunology in the UIC College of Medicine, as saying.

The current discovery holds a promising future for HIV and AIDS cure. The said compound may be added to the current HIV/AIDS treatment to make it more potent.

"Patentiflorin A represents a novel anti-HIV agent that can be added to the current anti-HIV drug cocktail regimens to increase suppression of the virus and prevention of AIDS," Dr. Rong added.

However, further studies are yet to be made concerning the medicinal impact of such compound. It is expected that human trials will have to be performed before such herbal plant be deemed as an HIV cure. Meanwhile, people would have to stick to the currently tested and proven treatment methods, before delving deeper into the so-called alternative or complementary medications for HIV/AIDS.

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