This week, the news that another person was “cured” from HIV by a remarkable stem cell transplant is a sign of hope for a more widespread way to fight the HIV epidemic that has plagued the globe for years. However, while this story certainly deserves celebration, experts in the research say that we are still far from having a universal cure.

Researchers Yvonne Bryson, MD, director of paediatric infectious diseases at UCLA, told attendees at an international conference on infectious diseases that this case is unique. The patient had HIV and was multiracial. Two of the previous patients were males who were white and Latino. The patient, in this instance, received Umbilical Cord blood and stem cells for the treatment of leukemia. The treatment did put her cancer in remission and her HIV. The case’s success suggests that the cord stem cells transplant can bring about the remission and cure of those who have HIV, cancer, and other illnesses.



Although the news was received with enthusiasm by scientists, this method will not be accessible worldwide since the transplants were done to treat cancers in three HIV-positive patients. But other experts believe that the procedure could help in other methods to treat ailments. Additionally, Bryson claims it could open alternatives for more diverse populations. In all, Bryson estimates that about 50 people each year might benefit from this treatment.

The patient needed an embryonic stem cell transplant after receiving a leukaemia diagnosis, an illness that causes blood cancer. The technique for stem cell transplantation used was also a first, Bryson says. The medical team employed the combination with adult stem cells derived from the blood of a relative and umbilical cord blood from an institution that held cord blood with a rare mutation that made the immune system intolerant to HIV.

In the two previous cases of HIV cures after transplants, the patients were both treated with stem cell transplants. Both patients had the same mutation but bone marrow transplants, which is a more complicated procedure. There was no cord blood utilized for these.

The mix of adult cells and cord blood cells has proved the key to success. According to researchers, the adult cells provide an underlying bridge until cord blood begins to take over the cells. At the time of day 100 following the transplant, Bryson claims that she was equipped with a new immune system. HIV was not detected within T cells as well as bone marrow. After 37 months of transplant, the patient was able to stop taking the antiretroviral medication typically prescribed to cure HIV infection.

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The First Woman to Be Cured of HIV
A woman has been able to go 14 months without detecting levels of HIV in her body as a result of the experimental procedure of transplanting stem cells. This “New York patient”, as she’s referred to, is the third person – as well as the very first female who appears to have been treated for HIV by this kind of treatment.

She is among 25 HIV-positive patients who received cord blood stem cell transplantation to help treat cancer or underlying diseases in the clinical trial IMPAACT P1107, which started in 2015 as according to the National Institute of Allergy Infectious Diseases explained.

This New York patient had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia four years after starting antiretroviral therapy to treat the treatment of HIV, NIAID says. Following chemotherapy, the cancer was put into Remission. The transplant was received back in 2017. After three years of transplant, she stopped taking the antiretroviral drug. She has not had any detectable HIV for the past 14 months.

Doctors say they believe that the New York patient is “functionally” healed, even though they haven’t managed to find HIV within her bloodstream for a long time in the past, it’s going to take longer to make sure that she’s genuinely healed as claimed by the doctor Dr John Torres, NBC’s chief medical reporter. “The virus can be complicated to detect. It’s possible to hide it, and then a decade later, it could be back, So they’re keeping a close watch on the situation,” he said.

She is among several patients seemingly treated for HIV after stem cell transplants like this. First, known as the “Berlin patient”, was in the midst of remission due to HIV 12 years before passing away from leukemia in 2020. Researchers presented in 2019 the stories of “London patient” and “Dusseldorf patient. “London patient” and the “Dusseldorf patient” both had HIV Remission after transferring stem cells.

However, this New York patient’s case is special. The process generally begins with the administration of chemotherapy to eradicate cancerous cells from patients’ bodies. Following that, the patient undergoes an organ transplant using stem cells that carry a particular genetic mutation. The intention is to treat both cancers (or any other health condition) and HIV through essentially degrading and changing the patient’s immune system, Torres explained.

A New York patient received a haplo-cord transfer, a mix of two transplants: The first was an umbilical cord transplant blood that carried the genetic mutation that makes HIV resistant. Then, later on, she received adult stem cells. The method, created by a team from Weill-Cornell Medicine, has some advantages over the previously used techniques and has a lower risk of developing graft host disease.

Case Histories: Three Patients
In her mid-life, this woman has asked for privacy, requesting not to reveal her age or other details be disclosed. However, the researchers have provided information about her medical history and path back to health. Her diagnosis was HIV in 2013, and she was able to begin the treatment process with an antiretroviral drug (ART). After four years of the HIV diagnosis, she was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia with a high risk of autoimmune blood cancer. The transplant was carried out to treat this.

Researchers claim that her recovery was significantly more smooth than the two previous patients. She was discharged from the hospital just 17 days after the transplant. There were no grave complications like the other two, who had a condition that happens when bone marrow from donors or stem cells target the recipient.

“This case suggests that it was the transplantation of cells resistant to HIV that played a key role in establishing a cure,” says Lewin, who is from the International AIDS Society. The first person to experience HIV Remission after transplanting stem cells was a white man. He was in remission for 12 years and was later declared “cured. He died from leukemia in September 2020. Another man, a Latino man, has been in remission for nearly 30 months.
SOURCE: https://www.theblumer.com/hiv-patient-cured-using-stem-cells-transplant/

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