2024-07-24 00:29:16
A seventh man has been virtually cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant nearly a decade ago. The man, who also suffered from other serious illnesses, is now in much better health.
The New York Times writes about this.
The 60-year-old German, who suffered from acute myeloid leukemia, underwent complex surgery to replace the damaged bone marrow in October 2015. He stopped taking antiretroviral drugs, which suppress HIV replication, in September 2018. He is now in viral remission and appears to be cancer-free.
“A healthy person has many desires, but a sick person has only one,” said a man who wished to remain anonymous.
Dr Christian Gebler, a physician-scientist at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, will present the case next week at the 25th International AIDS Conference.
“The longer we see these types of HIV remissions without antiretroviral therapy, the more confident we become that we may have actually eliminated all active HIV,” Gebler said.
At a press conference last week, International AIDS Society President Sharon Levine cautioned against using the term “cure.” But she noted that staying in remission for more than five years puts the case close to a cure.
The German man’s case is different from most others in that five of the six patients received stem cells from donors with two copies of a rare genetic mutation that prevents HIV from replicating. He is the first person to receive stem cells from a donor with one copy of the mutated gene while also having his own copy of the gene. About 1% of Caucasians have two copies of the defective gene, and 10% to 18% of people of European descent have one copy, expanding the potential donor pool.
About 39 million people worldwide are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But only a few will be able to access this treatment, which is designed for people with HIV and an aggressive form of leukemia.
Cursor also reported that scientists’ research in the field of HIV is aimed at the methods and mechanisms of forming the body’s response to the virus. Specialists are developing antibodies that neutralize the virus and are able to cope with it at the initial stage of infection.