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TUESDAY, March 1 (HealthDay News) -- Experts are reacting with cautious optimism to the announcement Monday that researchers reconfigured immune cells so that they became resistant to HIV in six patients infected with the virus.

But they say the jury is out on whether the technique might ever spell an end to AIDS.

The goal is ultimately a cure or what's called a "functional cure" -- having the body permanently keep HIV at bay -- but "we're not there yet," stressed Dr. Michael Kolber, professor of medicine and director of the Comprehensive AIDS Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

The trial, reported Feb. 28 at a meeting of HIV specialists in Boston, "was a proof-of-principle that they could go in and do this. They demonstrated that the [genetically engineered] cells stayed in the patients, but the patients were not cured," said Kolber, who was not involved in the new research.

Another expert agreed that the treatment's true potential remains uncertain.

"If successful, this probably could have wide application, but going from six patients to an entire...