In a groundbreaking study, a team of University of California- Davis Health researchers have uncovered the stem cells' ability to restore immunity and repair gut damage caused by HIV. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) Insight, discovered a special type of stem cell that can reduce the amount of the virus causing AIDS, boosting the body's antiviral immunity and repairing and restoring the gut's lymphoid follicles damaged by the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the equivalent of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in non-human primates. It showed the mechanism through which mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) enhance the body's immune response to the virus. It also provides a roadmap for developing multi-pronged HIV eradication strategies.