Man, 60, declared “free” of HIV after revolutionary cancer treatment – ​​making him the seventh person to be “cured”

A SEVENTH person is expected to have been “cured” of HIV after a revolutionary stem cell treatment.

The 60-year-old man, who also had acute myeloid leukemia when he underwent the bone marrow replacement procedure in October 2015, is now free of both diseases.

“A healthy person has many desires, a sick person only one,” he said.

The patient, from Germany, who wishes to remain anonymous, has been dubbed “Berlin’s next patient.”

The original Berlin patient, Timothy Ray Brown, was the first person to be declared “cured” of HIV in 2008. He died of cancer in 2020.

The second man’s long-term HIV remission was announced ahead of the 25th International AIDS Conference in Munich next week.

He was first diagnosed with HIV in 2009, according to a summary of the research presented at the event.

The man received a bone marrow transplant for leukemia – a type of blood cancer that affects the blood cells in the bone marrow – in 2015.

The procedure, which carries a 10% risk of death, essentially replaces a person’s immune system.

He then stopped taking antiretroviral medications – which reduce the amount of HIV in the blood – at the end of 2018.

Nearly six years later, he appears to be free of HIV and cancer, medical researchers said.

Christian Gaebler, from Berlin’s Charite University Hospital, where the man was being treated, said the team could not be “absolutely certain” that all traces of HIV had been eradicated.

But “the patient’s case is highly suggestive of a cure for HIV,” Gaebler added.

“He feels good and is excited to contribute to our research efforts.”

International AIDS Society President Sharon Lewin said researchers are hesitant to use the word “cure” because it is unclear how long is needed to track such cases.

But more than five years of remission means the man “would be close” to being considered cured, she said at a news conference.

There is an important difference between this man’s case and the other six HIV patients who achieved long-term remission, she said.

The longer we observe these HIV remissions without any antiretroviral therapy, the more confidence we can have that we are probably seeing a case where we have truly eradicated all the competent HIV viruses.

Dr Christian Gaebler

All but one received stem cells from donors with a rare mutation in which part of the CCR5 gene was missing, preventing HIV from entering the body’s cells.

These donors inherited two copies of the mutant CCR5 gene – one from each parent – ​​making them “essentially immune” to HIV, Lewin said.

But the new Berlin patient is the first to receive stem cells from a donor who inherited just one copy of the mutated gene.

About 15 percent of people of European origin have one mutated copy, compared with 1 percent for both.

HUGE PROMISE

Researchers hope the latest success means there will be a much larger pool of potential donors in the future.

The new case is also “promising” for the broader search for an HIV cure that works for all patients, Lewin said.

“This is because it suggests that you don’t actually need to get rid of every piece of CCR5 for gene therapy to work,” she added.

The Geneva patient, whose case was announced at last year’s AIDS conference, is the other exception among the seven.

He received a transplant from a donor without any CCR5 mutations, but still achieved long-term remission.

This showed that the effectiveness of the procedure was not just due to the CCR5 gene, Lewin said.

HIV is a virus that damages immune system cells and weakens their ability to fight everyday infections and illnesses.

An estimated 106,890 people are living with the disease in the UK.

In most cases, the disease spreads through unprotected sexual contact with an infected person.

Most people will experience flu-like symptoms two to six weeks after becoming infected.

This tends to include a sore throat, fever, and a rash all over the body that lasts one to two weeks.

After this, HIV may not cause any symptoms, but the virus continues to damage your immune system.

Some people experience weight loss, night sweats, thrush in the mouth, an increase in herpes or cold sore outbreaks, swollen glands in the groin, neck or armpit, prolonged diarrhea and tiredness.

Although there is no cure for HIV, there are very effective treatments that allow most people with the virus to live long, healthy lives.

The medication now reduces the amount of the virus in the body to the point where it is undetectable, meaning it cannot be transmitted.

Dr. Gaebler said, “The longer we observe these HIV remissions without any antiretroviral therapy, the more confidence we can have that we are probably seeing a case where we have actually eradicated all competent HIV.”

4

4

4