HIV cured

2022 - 2 - 15

Post cover — Image courtesy of "NBC News"

Scientists have possibly cured HIV in a woman for the first time (NBC News)

Following a cutting-edge treatment four years ago, the “New York patient” is now off of HIV medication and remains “asymptomatic and healthy,” researchers ...

This is a potentially devastating inflammatory reaction in which the donor cells go to war with the recipient’s body. They also drew immune cells from the woman and in a laboratory experiment attempted to infect them with HIV — to no avail. Absent any HIV treatment, such cells may restart their engines at any time and repopulate the body with massive amounts of virus. News of this supposed HIV cure swept the globe and ignited a media frenzy. Another benefit of relying on cord blood is that banks of this resource are much easier to screen in large numbers for the HIV-resistance abnormality than the bone marrow registries from which oncologists find stem cell donors. In haplo-cord transplants, the additional transplantation of stem cells from an adult donor, which provides a plethora of cells, can help compensate for the paucity of cord blood cells. “We estimate that there are approximately 50 patients per year in the U.S. who could benefit from this procedure,” van Besien said of the haplo-cord transplant’s use as an HIV-cure therapy. They paired a transplant of those cells with stem cells from an adult donor. Bryson and Persaud have partnered with a network of other researchers to conduct lab tests to evaluate the woman. So for those lacking substantial similar ancestry, the chance of finding a suitable stem cell donor is particularly low. An American research team reported that it has possibly cured HIV in a woman for the first time. In the first case of what was ultimately deemed a successful HIV cure, investigators treated the American Timothy Ray Brown for acute myeloid leukemia, or AML. He received a stem cell transplant from a donor who had a rare genetic abnormality that grants the immune cells that HIV targets natural resistance to the virus.

A Woman Is Cured of H.I.V. Using a Novel Treatment (The New York Times)

Cord blood is more widely available than the adult stem cells used in the bone marrow transplants that cured the previous two patients, and it does not need to ...

In August of that year, she received cord blood from a donor with the mutation that blocks H.I.V.’s entry into cells. More than 14 months later, she now shows no signs of H.I.V. in blood tests, and does not seem to have detectable antibodies to the virus. It’s unclear exactly why stem cells from cord blood seem to work so well, experts said. In 2019, another patient, later identified as Adam Castillejo, was reported to be cured of H.I.V., confirming that Mr. Brown’s case was not a fluke. Referred to as “The Berlin Patient,” Timothy Ray Brown stayed virus-free for 12 years, until he died in 2020 of cancer. The new results dispel that idea, Dr. Lewin said. The woman, who is now past middle age (she did not want to disclose her exact age because of privacy concerns), was diagnosed with H.I.V. in June 2013. Most donors in registries are of Caucasian origin, so allowing for only a partial match has the potential to cure dozens of Americans who have both H.I.V. and cancer each year, scientists said. Powerful antiretroviral drugs can control H.I.V., but a cure is key to ending the decades-old pandemic. The woman, who also had leukemia, received cord blood to treat her cancer. But Dr. Deeks said he did not see the new approach becoming commonplace. She’s the third person ever to be cured.

Researchers announce fourth person possibly cured of HIV (WZDX)

The New York woman underwent a specific stem cell treatment also used to treat her cancer diagnosis.

Scientists say first woman apparently cured of HIV with new treatment (WJMN - UPMatters.com)

The HIV-positive woman also had leukemia and had received treatment from the umbilical cord blood for her cancer from a donor who partially matched.

Woman cured of HIV after stem cell transplant (Aljazeera.com)

The new approach may make the treatment available to more people without the need for antiretroviral therapy.

Lewin said that while bone marrow transplants are not a viable strategy to cure most people living with HIV, the report “confirms that a cure for HIV is possible and further strengthens using gene therapy as a viable strategy for an HIV cure”. The case is part of a wider study led by the University of California, Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore that follows 25 people with HIV who undergo transplants with stem cells for the treatment of cancer and other serious conditions. “This is now the third report of a cure in this setting, and the first in a woman living with HIV,” Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, said in a statement.

Breakthrough treatment makes woman 3rd person to be cured of HIV (ABC News)

Researchers revealed on Tuesday that an American has likely been cured of HIV after undergoing a new transplant procedure using donated umbilical cord blood.

On the vaccine front, Moderna recently announced that it's launched early stage clinical trials of an HIV mRNA vaccine. "It's more of a proof of concept." "This case is special for several reasons: First, our participant was a U.S. woman living with HIV of mixed race, who needed a stem cell transplant for treatment of her leukemia. Previously, only two men have been cured of HIV using a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. ... It is not practical to think that this is something that's going to be widely available," Fauci added. "Today, we reported the third known case of HIV remission and the first woman following a stem cell transplant and using HIV-resistant cells," Bryson said in a press conference.