A high risk stem cell Transplant has rid a middle-aged man of all signs of human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV) more than nine years after treatment.
The so-called “Düsseldorf patient” was diagnosed with HIV in 2008 and received antiretroviral treatment in 2010. The following year he was diagnosed with leukemia Cancer of the white blood cells in the bone marrow.
Given the serious combination of the man’s diseases, the doctors decided on a dangerous path.
In 2013, the patient underwent a stem cell transplant that lasts stem cells from a donor’s bone marrow or blood and uses the sample to replace a sick patient’s own white blood cells.
In this case, however, the donor was chosen because he had a genetic mutation that makes him resistant to HIV. The idea was to cure the patient’s leukemia while giving them a genetic resistance to HIV.
Nine years after receiving this first treatment and four years after stopping use of antiviral treatments, researchers have announced that the patient shows no signs of functional, replicating HIV particles in his body, effectively rendering him virus-free.
The Düsseldorf patient was the third patient to receive such a stem cell transplant.
And although there is no clear boundary between cured and infectious, the Düsseldorf patient is participating four more stem cell recipients The researchers are confident that all traces of functional HIV genomes have been removed from their bodies.
The other patients were referred to as the City of Hope, the Londoners, the New Yorkers, and the Berlin Patients.
The word “healing” is in quotation marks because it contains some serious caveats.
HIV is one of the most difficult viruses for experts to treat. It lies latent in the body, beyond the reach of the immune system or modern medicines.
Stem cell treatments for cancer like the one described above are incredible because they can make immune cells resistant to the virus present.
At the same time, however, they are also potentially deadly and don’t always work, not even for leukemia. Currently, they are only used as a last resort and in extreme cases.
However, how some patients are cured by this cutting-edge intervention “could influence future strategies for achieving long-term remission from HIV-1.” write Researchers from the University Hospital Düsseldorf in Germany.
A handful more HIV cases were even controlled without stem cell treatment.
These patients were able to stop taking antiretroviral treatments and still maintain little to no evidence of the virus in their systems.
Why this is so, however, remains unclear clinical trials show some possible avenues for healing.
In 2022, for example, a common cancer drug was found to bring latent HIV to light.
The drug hasn’t “eradicated” HIV in patients, but its success suggests there are ways to tweak the immune system to better deal with the long-lasting virus.
Stories like that of the Düsseldorf patient give scientists hope for the future. It’s obviously possible to eradicate HIV, now we just have to figure out how to make it work for everyone who needs it.
The study was published in naturopathy.
