As reported by Reuters and several American media, an American patient with leukemia is the first woman and the third person so far to be cured of HIV, after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus.
She is the first woman and third person to be cured of HIV, after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus.
The case of a middle-aged New York woman of mixed race was announced this Tuesday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections ( CROI ) in Denver, USA.
This is also the first time that umbilical cord blood has been used, a newer approach that can make the treatment available to more people.
Virus free for 14 months
Since the patient received cord blood to treat her acute myeloid leukemia, she has been in remission and free of the virus for 14 months, without needing antiretroviral treatments against HIV, the scientists say.
The two previous cases of cures from this virus occurred in men — one white and one Latino — who had received adult stem cells, which are frequently used in bone marrow transplants.
The work follows 25 people with HIV who undergo a transplant with stem cells extracted from umbilical cord blood to treat cancers and other serious diseases.
“This is the third case of cure in this context, and the first in an HIV-positive woman,” Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, told the Reuters news agency.
The study is part of a larger work led by doctors Yvonne Bryson, from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Deborah Persaud, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Their goal is to follow 25 people with HIV who undergo a transplant with stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases.
Specific genetic mutation
Patients in the trial first undergo chemotherapy to kill cancerous immune cells. Next, researchers transplant stem cells from individuals with a specific genetic mutation where they lack the receptors that the virus uses to infect cells.
The study—the results of which have not yet been published in any peer-reviewed journal—suggests that an important element for success is the transplantation of HIV-resistant cells.
Lewin warned that bone marrow transplants (used with the two previous patients who were cured) are not a viable strategy to cure most people with HIV. However, the expert noted, the work “confirms that an HIV cure is possible and further reinforces the use of gene therapy as a viable strategy.”
Source: SINC / Agencies
Rights: Creative Commons.
