The patient, treated at the University Hospital Düsseldorf for his HIV infection, had received a stem cell transplant due to a blood cancer. The "Düsseldorf patient," a 53-year-old man, is now the third person in the world to be completely cured of the HI virus by a stem cell transplant. The reason for this is that the virus "sleeps" in the genome of infected cells for long periods of time, making it invisible and inaccessible to both the immune system and antiviral drugs. "The ability to use partially matched umbilical cord blood grafts greatly increases the likelihood of finding suitable donors for such patients," van Besien said.An infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was previously considered incurable. Worldwide, nearly 38 million people are living with HIV, according to the Times. Koen van Besien, director of the stem cell transplant program at Weill Cornell Medicine and one of the doctors involved in the treatment, told The Guardian. who could benefit from this procedure," Dr. "We estimate that there are approximately 50 patients per year in the U.S. So some scientists think the procedure may be more accessible than bone marrow transplants to HIV patients. In general, umbilical cord blood is more widely available and more easily matched to recipients than bone marrow.
#Woman cured of hiv after stem cell transplant trial
These individuals will undergo an umbilical cord stem-cell transplant for the treatment of cancer, and the trial organizers will then monitor them to see whether their HIV status changes following the procedure. The woman's case is part of a larger U.S.-based study that will follow a total of 25 people with HIV, Reuters reported. More than 14 months have passed since then, and still, no trace of the virus or antibodies against the virus can be found in her blood, the Times reported. She elected to stop taking antiretroviral drugs, the standard treatment for HIV, 37 months after her transplant, the Times reported. The woman's procedure took place in August 2017, according to The Guardian. 11 (sometimes) deadly diseases that hopped across species Marshall Glesby, an infectious-diseases expert at Weill Cornell Medicine and part of the research team, told the Times. "The transplant from the relative is like a bridge that got her through to the point of the cord blood being able to take over," Dr. In the woman's case, her donor was "partially matched," and she also received stem cells from a close relative to help bolster her immune system after the transplant procedure, the Times reported. The baby's immature cells adapt to the recipient's body more easily than adult cells.
HLAs come in different flavors, and these flavors must be closely matched between a bone marrow donor and a recipient to avoid a catastrophic immune reaction.īut because a baby's immune system is still quite immature at the time of birth, the HLAs of the baby and cord blood recipient don't have to match as closely as the HLAs of a bone marrow donor and recipient, MSK notes. For bone marrow transplants, doctors check the donor's and recipient's human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type, which refers to whether the individuals carry specific proteins, called HLAs, in the tissues of their bodies. Cord blood contains a high quantity of hematopoietic stem cells the blood is collected at the time of a baby's birth and then donated by the parents, according to the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center.Ĭord blood offers an advantage over bone marrow because donors don't need to be closely "matched" to their transplant recipient, according to MSK. She had received the umbilical cord blood as both a treatment for the cancer and for her HIV, as her doctors identified a donor with the HIV-blocking genetic mutation. In addition to being HIV-positive, the woman had acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer that affects blood-forming cells in the bone marrow, Reuters reported. Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, who was not involved in the work, told the Times. Her case dispels an existing theory that triggering graft versus host disease might be a necessary step in curing someone of HIV, Dr. JingMei Hsu, the patient’s physician at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, told the Times. She left the hospital just 17 days after her procedure, without any signs of graft versus host disease, Dr.
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