The FDC, believed to be the largest of the reservoirs, also has beneficial functions. If you get a tetanus shot, for instance, that shot clears out in about 72 hours. But the body's immune system remembers it for up to 10 years, and the researchers believe it does so by trapping and keeping samples of the antigenic material, which it releases a little bit at a time, introducing another round for antibody production. HIV takes advantage of the mechanism, staying active for a very long time while avoiding treatment that would kill it and continuing to come in contact with and infecting other cells.

Burton believes that while it can store the virus in infectious form to reignite infection under certain conditions, it can also provide scientists the information they will need to specifically target the virus that's stored on the FDC.

"If we could go in and perhaps flush it from the surface of the cell, we might decrease dramatically the amount of virus that could perpetuate infection," Burton said.

Because the FDC participates in other processes, the researchers believe the ramifications could stretch to conditions such as allergy and autoimmune disease. That, however, is fodder for future research.

The BYU and Johns Hopkins researchers are seeking an NIH grant to see if they can devise ways to attack the viral reservoir on the FDCs.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com