A digitally colorized scanning electron microscopic image depicts a single, red colored H9-T cell that had been infected by numerous, spheroid shaped, mustard colored human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) particles attached to the cell鈥檚 surface membrane. Courtesy NIAID
LONDON 鈥� The oldest patient yet has been cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant for leukemia, researchers reported on Wednesday.
While the transplant was planned to treat the now-66-year-old鈥檚 leukemia, the doctors also sought a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS, a mechanism that first worked to cure the 鈥淏erlin patient鈥�, Timothy Ray Brown, in 2007.
The latest patient, the fourth to be cured in this way, is known as the 鈥淐ity of Hope鈥� patient after the U.S. facility in Duarte, California, where he was treated, because he does not want to be identified.
As well as being the oldest, the patient has also had HIV the longest, having been diagnosed in 1988 with what he described as a 鈥渄eath sentence鈥� that killed many of his friends.
He has been on antiretroviral therapy (ART) to control his condition for more than 30 years.
Doctors who presented the data ahead of the International Aids Society鈥檚 (IAS) 2022 meeting said the case opened up the potential for older patients with HIV and blood cancer to access the treatment, particularly as the stem cell donor was not a family member.
Hope
Describing a cure as the 鈥渉oly grail鈥�, Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the IAS, said the case provided 鈥渃ontinued hope 鈥� and inspiration鈥� for people with HIV and the wider scientific community, although it was unlikely to be an option for most people with HIV due to the risks of the procedure.
Scientists think the process works because the donor individual鈥檚 stem cells have a specific, rare genetic mutation which means they lack the receptors used by HIV to infect cells.
After the transplant three and a half years ago, which followed chemotherapy, the City of Hope patient stopped taking ART in March 2021. He has now been in remission from both HIV and leukemia for more than a year, the team said.
On Wednesday, researchers in Spain also presented details of a 59-year-old woman who is one of a rare group of what is known as 鈥減ost-treatment controllers鈥�. They can maintain undetectable viral loads after stopping ART, and also provide clues to a potential cure, Lewin said.
Ahead of the IAS conference that starts on Friday, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) also presented data showing how the COVID-19 pandemic had derailed global efforts to tackle HIV, including a reversal of progress in the world鈥檚 most populous region, Asia and the Pacific.
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