Third patient worldwide cured from HIV by bone marrow transplant
A third person has been cured of HIV thanks to a bone marrow transplant, the French Pasteur Institute announced on Monday.
The unnamed patient living with HIV who was being treated for leukaemia in Dusseldorf received a bone marrow transplant from a donor exhibiting a rare stem cell mutation making them resistant to HIV.
Asier Saez-Cirion, an immunity researcher focusing on HIV Remission at Pasteur Institute said "The immune cells from the donor are going to replace and destroy the immune cells that are those carrying HIV in the patient," HIV remission researcher and participant in the procedure,".
Potential surviving infected stem cells then find themselves unable to infect others with the virus, thanks to the donor's naturally HIV-resistant cells.
The case 'Dusseldorf patient' comes as the third worldwide, with a previous case in 2007, the 'Berlin patient', and another in 2016, the 'London patient'.
Though the procedure is complex, expensive and risky, Saez-Cirion says it is a positive step in the search for a cure to HIV, with one potential solution being the introduction of the HIV-resistant gene mutation in patients without resorting to bone marrow transplants.
More than 38 million people worldwide are currently infected with HIV, and the AIDS pandemic has killed about 40 million people since it began in the 1980s.
Medical advances over the past three decades have led to the development of drug combinations known as antiretroviral therapies that can keep the virus in check, allowing many HIV-positive people to live with the virus for years.
Reuters
