The research, published online in the journal Retrovirology, indicates an existing drug -- miltefosine -- may promote cells being used by HIV as safe-havens to commit "cell suicide."

Past studies by this University of Rochester research team determined the macrophage -- a scavenger cell that normally rids the body of pathogens and other "debris" -- can actually become a "safe-haven" and provide a reservoir for HIV.

Operating from these havens, HIV can go on to make the body vulnerable to infections and progress to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS.

"Miltefosine puts an end to the long lives of HIV-infected macrophages," lead study author Baek Kim, of the University of Rochester Medical Center, said in a statement. "The fact that it is already used in humans could accelerate the process of seeking government approval for a new, anti-HIV use for miltefosine, or something like it."

The drug -- miltefosine also known as Impavido, first identified in Germany in the early 1980s as a potential breast cancer treatment -- is presently used to treat a parasitic infection called leishmaniasis, or sandfly disease.