THE CURE
The Hemo-TRAP method involves two main steps:
1: tricking the virus from leaving cells and entering the main blood stream and then
2: using a machine that filters them out from the blood with a unique "virus killer" protein. The method is using a "blood loop" in this way to clean the blood.
The "virus trap" is based on an idea, where you artificially mimic the natural receptors of human immune cells (T-cells) that are targeted by HIV-1 virus. The trap molecules are designed to have higher binding affinity for the virus than real T-cells, luring the virus away from its natural hosts and effectively neutralizing it in the process. The reason the virus "goes back into the blood stream" is due to a special hormone that is released during the procedure, which stimulates this phenomenon. More precisely, it tricks the HIV-infected cells into thinking they are under attack by the immune system, forcing them to release the virus into the bloodstream so it can be filtered out by Hemo-TRAP machine.
Once the blood leaves the patient it will be cleaned by passing through a unique protein filter that binds selectively to the trapped virus and effectively removes it from circulation. This process is done in cycles until the level of viral load gets close enough to zero, thus allowing the patient's immune system to fully recover and rebuild its T-cells
The key to the trap molecules are more precisely 10 amino acid long peptides that mimic natural receptor sites on human T-cells, but with higher binding affinity for HIV than the real receptors. And the protein filter is more precisely a nanomaterial-based bio-sensor specifically designed to bind and remove the virus from the blood. The key to this nanomaterial biosensor is its unique surface structure which allows it to specifically recognize the trapped HIV virus particles, while leaving other components of the blood unaffected. More precisely it uses a combination of antibodies and aptamers (a type of nucleic acid that can bind with high affinity to specific targets) in order to capture and concentrate the virus from the blood sample.