60-year-old German declared free of disease Immunity deficiency Virus (HIV) After undergoing a stem cell transplant and stopping antiretroviral medications in 2018, the medical team at Berlin Charite Hospital.
The man who was diagnosed blood cancer received a bone marrow transplant in 2015. The German Medical Center noted that stem cell transplantation is only applicable to patients who, in addition to HIV infection, also suffer from certain types of breast cancer, leukemia or lymphoma and whose cancer cannot be treated with radiation or chemotherapy alone.
“In this procedure, stem cells from a healthy donor are transferred to the patient, replacing the immune system. This is how cancer and HIV are fought. Until now, it was thought that it was necessary to find a donor with very specific genetic characteristics to carry out this transplant,” the researchers explained.
In fact, this is the seventh case in the world in which a person has recovered from the virus after several years without antiretroviral therapy.
innovative procedure
The 60-year-old man was diagnosed with HIV in 2009 and underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2015 to treat acute myeloid leukemia, which requires a stem cell transplant in addition to chemotherapy.
This person stopped antiretroviral therapy in 2018 and is now cured of both HIV and cancer.
Promising but limited progress
The treatment used for this German patient is the same as that used in other cases of HIV remission. Most patients who achieve permanent remission of HIV receive stem cells from donors with a rare mutation in the CCR5 gene, which prevents the virus from entering the body’s cells.
However, in this new case, the patient received stem cells from a donor who had only one copy of the mutated gene, unlike the previous ones who had both copies.
Researchers hope that this latest success will increase the number of potential donors in the future and open up new possibilities for HIV gene therapy.
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