HIV and AIDS might be cured within a few years due to a medical breakthrough that allows researchers to cut the powerful virus from infected immune cells, and prevent the deadly disease from coming back. United States researchers have found a way to use genetic editing tech to remove the virus from cells' DNA. This would stop the HIV virus' attack on patients' immune system that prevents them from fighting off other infections.   

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The new study was conducted by researchers at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.

Scientists are certain that they can start human trials within three years.  

The new treatment called Crispr/Cas9 would use genetic engineering so the body could use its own defenses to cure itself, according to The Telegraph.

The human immune cells that received the new treatment did not show any other changes to their DNA. Some researchers have been concerned that changing a person's genetic code could be dangerous or deadly for humans.

This new technique targets HIV's genetic code after it enters human cells. Researchers modify the Cas9 protein so it can detect viral code.   

Researchers remove blood from a patient and then add the Cas9 protein so it can find HIV DNA imbedded in immune cells. The protein then releases a type of enzyme that snips the virus and returns the healthy cells back to the HIV patient. Scientists think that replacing 20 percent of the infected immune cells with the genetically modified (GM) cells would provide a cure for the disease.

Professor Kamel Khalili was the study's lead researcher. He explains that being able to totally remove parts of the virus' genome in the lab means that researchers should also be able to do it in a human body.

Khalili notes the findings were important for many reasons. The researchers used gene editing to remove HIV from immune cells' DNA, kept the virus from duplicating, and prevented toxic side-effects.

Over 1.2 million people are living with HIV in the United States, and almost 13 percent do not know about their infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Anti-retroviral drugs are very effective in controlling an HIV infection but patients must take the drugs for their entire life. If they stop taking the meds then HIV could progress to AIDS. 

Here are some HIV/AIDS breakthroughs: