On Thursday, in a groundbreaking announcement doctors proclaimed that one more individual has been cured of HIV through stem cell transplant almost a decade ago. The patient, a 60-year-old German man who pleaded to remain anonymous, had acute myeloid leukaemia when his defective bone marrow was replaced after he underwent an extremely dangerous procedure in October 2015 according to NYP report.
He stopped using antiretroviral drugs that suppress the replication of HIV in September 2018. He is still under viral remission and it seems as though he does not have cancer anymore. “A healthy person has many wishes, a sick person only one,” reflecting on his progress, he said.
Dr Christian Gaebler, physician-scientist at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin will present the case before the 25th International AIDS Conference. Gaebler noted that given this extended period without any HIV therapy and still being in remission combined with other factors it might be possible to say that the eradication of all latently infected competent cells could be within reach.
“The longer we see these HIV remissions without any HIV therapy, the more confidence we can get that we’re probably seeing a case where we really have eradicated all competent HIV,” according to Gaebler.
Even so, she cautioned against using word “cure”, “during a recent news conference,” says International AIDS Society President Sharon Lewin. Even so, she acknowledged that more than five years without symptoms suggests cure is near for the fellow.
One main difference between this German man’s situation and all six others before him is worth noting. The source of stem cells for five out of six patients except for this German guy came from donors whose genomes had two copies of an uncommon genetic mutation preventing replication of HIV.
The other two are in relation to having stem cells from a donor who had just one copy of mutant gene but also having another one gene with a mutation such as this German patient.
Two copies of the faulty gene are present in 1% of Caucasians, and a single copy is found in about 10% to 18% of individuals of European descent, thereby increasing the pool of available donors.
HIV is the virus that causes AIDS and it affects an estimated global population figure of around 39 million people. Only those with both HIV and aggressive leukemia will have access to this treatment which will be limited to only a few people.
