HIV patients appear cured after stem cell transplant
An HIV-infected man was freed from the virus after undergoing a stem cell transplant. one of the few people considered cured After treatment. An HIV patient living in Düsseldorf, Germany, also had cancer and had a bone marrow transplant replacing his cells with his HIV-resistant stem cells from a donor, according to a newly published study.
Known as the “Düsseldorf patient,” the 53-year-old man underwent a stem cell transplant in 2013 after being diagnosed with leukemia. His stem cell donor had a mutation that interfered with a protein that HIV uses to enter cells.
He was on antiretroviral therapy (ART), which is commonly done with HIV patients to make the virus nearly undetectable. You can also prevent
During ART, HIV stays in the body, but studies show that stem cell transplantation can “significantly reduce the viral reservoir” in which the virus persists. It was published this week in Nature Medicine.
During his ART treatment, the doctor continued to evaluate the Düsseldorf patient’s reservoir. His HIV was thought to be undetectable, but he still had an HIV reservoir and was tested for trace amounts of viral DNA and RNA. However, additional tests showed that the virus did not replicate.
The medical team decided to test what would happen if he stopped treatment.In 2018, 69 months later, he stopped ART. Since then he has been free of his HIV.
Virologist Björn Erik Jensen, who led the medical team during the patient’s treatment, said: “This shows that it is not impossible to clear HIV from the body. It is just very difficult.”
first thought patient Timothy Ray Brown who cured HIVAt the time of his treatment, he was known as the “Berlin patient” because he was living in a German city with both HIV and leukemia.
Brown received a blood stem cell transplant from an HIV-immune donor when he became seriously ill while battling cancer. “cured” 2008, not long after his transplant.
Brown said in 2011 He stopped taking HIV medications the day he had the transplant and has not taken them since. He died in 2020 after his cancer returned, the AP reported, and Brown said he appeared HIV-free until his death.
Another patient, dubbed the “London patient”, 40-year-old Adam Castillejo, said: received a bone marrow transplant For the treatment of untreatable Hodgkin lymphoma. His donation was also from someone who had a mutation and his HIV was cured in his 2019.
Recent studies have shown promising results in two other patients. A patient at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California has been in HIV remission since 2019 after undergoing a stem cell transplant to treat acute myeloid leukemia. according to The announcement was published in the American Journal of Managed Care in 2022. Weill Cornell Medicine in New York announced last year HIV patients appeared virus-free after cell transplantation to treat the same type of cancer.
according to natural medicine, this treatment may not be used in HIV patients who also do not have leukemia. Scientists are testing what happens when a patient’s own stem cells are modified to carry the necessary mutations to block HIV. This means the patient does not need a donor.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hiv-cured-after-stem-cell-bone-marrow-transplant-dusseldorf-patient-germany/ HIV patients appear cured after stem cell transplant