Queensland researchers believe they’ve hit upon a “light switch” protein within the HIV virus, which can be flicked off to stop it developing into full-blown AIDS.

The Queensland Institute of Medical Research believes it may be developed into the closest thing modern medicine will get to a cure.

“This has the possibility - not to eliminate the virus - but hopefully to allow us to reconstitute a human immune system that is resistant to HIV,” Associate Professor David Harrich said.

He said they experimented on a normal protein usually used by the HIV virus to replicate itself in human cells and mutated it to create the “Nullbasic” protein.

“We now have a very potent protein that can stop HIV from growing in cells,” he said.