Scientists from China and the United States said they have found a chemical that could stop AIDS virus from reproducing itself in the human body, raising hopes for a cure for AIDS.

The chemical was discovered by a research center at the prestigious University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, capital of eastern China's Anhui Province, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the United States.

The Sino-US joint laboratory research has found a compound, which researchers said could stop AIDS from entering cells where the virus lives and reproduces itself.

The compound can anticipate AIDS virus and occupy the holes of human body cells that have yet to be invaded by the virus. This would block it from reproducing and surviving in human body, according to the researchers. The researchers did not say what the compound was and how they discovered it.

The research result was published in the Journal of American Chemical. The journal highly praised the research, saying the test work is an important step towards the confirmation of new target center of anti-AIDS medicine.

The present medicine treatment for AIDS has not yet reached "ideal effectiveness" and continues to have harmful side effects and high costs.

AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a fatal infectious disease caused by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). Since the first case was reported in the United States in 1981, AIDS has spread rapidly on a globe scale.

According to an assessment report on China's AIDS prevention and control, which was released by the Ministry of Health early last year, HIV cases had been reported in all the Chinese mainland's 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.

There are 840,000 HIV carriers on the mainland, of whom 80,000 suffer AIDS, said the Ministry of Health.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2005)