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outside of it's protein capsule, a glycoprotein called gp120, which can bind to a receptor called CD4 on the helper T cell. Now again the gp120 glycoprotein is also a point of weakness for the virus. So there are many vulnerable points in the replication cycle of this particular virus which has already, or is in the process of being exploited by scientists. Anti-retroviral drugs attack these vulnerabilities, and has resulted in dramatic improvements in life expectancy and quality of life for HIV sufferers.

Whether HIV can be conquered in the next 10 years is open to speculation. I would speculate that it depends on how you define "cure". After all, complete suppresion of all disease-causing activity by the virus would be the equivalent of a cure, since it would enable the patient to be disease-free and hence asymptomatic, with a normal life span. As for complete eradication of the virus, I do not think it likely. Viruses such as HIV are able to hide in normal human DNA and lie dormant until a trigger event kick-starts the replication process into action. Our cells already contain virus DNA from previous infections, such as chickenpox (varicella zoster), and it is currently impossible to identify and eliminate rogue genetic material. The technology to do this is probably centuries away, and will one day be solved by genetic engineering by the molecular biologists. For now though, supression is the best we can achieve.

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