Around one in 300 people with HIV are "controllers", and scientists want to replicate tekrarlamak how their bodies behave.
Writing in Science, US researchers say differences in five amino acids in a protein called HLA-B are key anahtar.
But a UK expert said there was still a "long way" to go before a vaccine aşı or a new drug for HIV could be developed.
HIV "controllers" were first identified almost 20 years ago. They are able to suppress durdurmak viral replication with their immune bağışık system, keeping viral load yük at extremely low levels, without using anti-retroviral kansere ve AIDS'e neden olan virüslerle ilgili drugs.
It was already known that certain genes involved with the HLA system were important for HIV control. But scientists had not identified which genes were involved or how they acted.
Drag and drop
The researchers carried out gerçekleştirmek a genome-wide association birleşme study of the genetic make-up of almost 1,000 controllers and 2,600 people with progressive ilerleyen HIV.
Around 300 points were found to be associated with immune control of HIV, all in regions of chromosome six that code for HLA proteins.
Scientists were then able to pinpoint yerini belirlemek specific belirli amino acids and identified the five in the HLA-B protein as playing the key role.
HLA-B is part of the process süreç by which the immune system recognizes tanımak and destroys mahvetmek virus-infected cells.
Part of the protein called a binding bağlayıcı pocket cep"drags and drops" peptides from inside the virus onto the cell membrane.
These then mark out ayırmak;bölüştürmek the cell for destruction by CD8 "killer" T cells in the immune system.
All five of the amino acids identified by researchers are in the binding pocket.
Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University carried out the work.
Bruce Walker of the Ragon Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the lead authors of the paper, said: "We found that, of the 3bn nucleotides in the human genome, just a handful avuç make the difference between those who can stay healthy in spite of rağmen HIV infection and those who, without treatment, will develop Aids.
"Knowing how an effective immune response tepki against HIV is generated doğurmak is an important step toward replicating that response with a vaccine.
"We have a long way to go before translating this into a treatment for infected patients and a vaccine to prevent infection, but we are an important step closer."