Stem cell-related treatment has been used for various reasons, but perhaps the most progressive application is its effectiveness in curing a few cases of HIV. Recently, a fifth person who received a specialized stem cell transplant has shown great outcomes regarding the cure.
Another Case of a Successful HIV Cure
The person in question is a 53-year-old resing in Germany, who also goes by the Düsseldorf patient. He underwent the stem cell transplant procedure almost a decade ago for treating acute myeloid leukemia, a form of cancer that affects a person's white blood cells.
A person with a rare genetic mutation that gives them a natural resistance to HIV-1, donated compatible bone marrow in order to rebuild the HIV patient's immune system. It didn't solve the problem completely as the patient experienced health problems after the transplant.
To add to that, his cancer also returned a few months after the transplant. Despite that, the Düsseldorf patient remained on his antiretroviral therapy, and the HIV viral loads stayed undetectable, according to Gizmodo.
After several tests, some showed that there were still traces of HIV RNA and DNA in the patient's body, although others did not detect any fragment of the virus that could replicate and infect the patient again.
Four years prior, the doctors lessened the HIV treatment on the German patient, eventually cutting it off completely. Upon close monitoring, the infection has not recurred, and the doctors declared that the patient was cured of HIV.
The doctors stated that after analytical treatment interruption for four years, there were no signs of viral rebound and immunological correlates of HIV-1 antigen persistence, which indicate strong evidence for an HIV-1 cure.
The First Case
The first case was reported by the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trial Network (IMPAACT P1107). A woman living with HIV underwent a dual stem cell transplant consisting of a half-matched bone marrow transplant and an umbilical cord blood transplant.
The treatment was to cure the patient's acute myelogenous leukemia. 37 months after the transplant, the woman stopped her antiretroviral therapy. After 14 months, no HIV was detected and the patient went into remission from leukemia she developed back in 2017.
IMPAACT P1107 is an observational study that looks into the outcomes of the transplantation of cord blood stem cells with a CCR5 genetic mutation, according to WHO. The genetic mutation leads to T cells not having CCR5 co-receptors.
As the report says, HIV requires the CCR5 co-receptor to infect T cells. The study believes that after chemotherapy, patients can undergo transplantation with the stem cells carrying the CCR5 mutation, changing the immune system to make it resistant to HIV as a result.
Stem cell transplants have been used for HIV remission or cure in two previous cases. A patient from Berlin was treated for acute myelogenous leukemia back in 2009. He underwent a bone marrow stem cell transplant and experienced HIV remission for 12 years.
Sadly, the patient died in September 2020 after his leukemia recurred. The second patient resided in London and was treated for Hodgkin lymphoma. Post-transplant, the London patient has been in remission for 30 months.
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