Stem cell transplant: Certain illnesses can have a devastating effect on individuals and their families. The mere mention of certain diseases can cause deep sadness within a family. HIV is one of them. After decades of hard work, scientists have finally found a way to cure a condition that has long been thought to be incurable.
Incurable become Curable
Previously, Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was thought to be incurable due to its ability to “sleep” within the infected cell’s genome, thereby avoiding detection by both the immune system and antiviral medications. However, a 53-year-old man, referred to as the “Düsseldorf patient,” has become the third person in the world to be cured of the virus through a stem cell transplant.
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At the University Hospital Düsseldorf, a patient with HIV underwent a stem cell transplant to treat a blood cancer, similar to the Berlin and London cases. The stem cell transplant was from a donor who had a mutation to the gene for the HIV-1 co-receptor CCR5, which makes it impossible for most of the virus to enter and infect human CD4+ T-lymphocytes.
The research
For 10 years, the patient was closely monitored through a range of techniques assessing their blood and tissue samples for immune responses to HIV and potential replication of the virus. Over the entire course, no evidence of virus replication or antibodies/reactive cells to HIV were noticed. After 4 years, the patient was taken off antiviral therapy. Ten years after their transplant and 4 years after the end of their anti-HIV treatment, the patient has officially been declared cured by the international team of researchers.
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“This case of curing a chronic HIV infection by stem cell transplant shows that HIV can in principle be cured,” says Prof. Julian Schulze zur Wiesch, DZIF scientist at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and one of the study leads. “In particular, the results of this study are also enormously important for further research into a cure for HIV for the vast majority of people living with HIV for whom stem cell transplantation is not an option.”
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