An experimental drug, which was developed to treat epilepsy, appears to block the AIDS virus, Fox News reports. 

When tested in human tissues in the laboratory, the drug "works beautifully" to prevent HIV from destroying key cells of the immune system, said Dr. Warner Greene of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. 

In that work Greene and colleagues focus on how HIV kills vital CD4 cells of immune system.

The new work provides evidence that HIV enters these cells but fails to produce a full-blown infection, and in response the cells trigger a lethal attack on themselves by the immune system.

It's "more of a suicide than a murder," Greene said. "I believe this is the major mechanism through which CD4 cells are depleted, which is the hallmark of AIDS."

The epilepsy drug, which is not on the market, blocks an enzyme that the research identified as playing a key role in that immune system attack.

Prior studies of the drug in people show it is safe, Greene said. So the researchers are talking to the drug company about testing it in people infected with HIV. 

Greene said if such studies are successful, the drug might be used in people whose HIV resists standard drugs. It's even possible, he speculated, that the enzyme-blocking drug might help scientists eradicate the virus from the body.