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- A 53-year-old man in Düsseldorf, Germany, has been declared cured of HIV
- This is the third case of its kind
- The man has been free of active infection for four years after he stopped taking antiretroviral drugs
- The man was treated with a bone marrow transplant from a donor with a mutation that disables the CCR5 receptor that HIV uses to infect immune cells
- An alternative approach being explored is to use gene editing to mutate the CCR5 gene in the immune system of people who are HIV-positive
Die Details
A 53-year-old man in Düsseldorf, Germany, has been declared cured of HIV
This is the third case of its kind.
The man has been free of active infection for four years after he stopped taking antiretroviral drugs.
Treatment
In 2011, the man was diagnosed with leukaemia and underwent chemotherapy. However, the cancer returned the following year.
To treat it, doctors killed off the blood stem cells in the man’s bone marrow and replaced them with donor blood stem cells.
The donor had a mutation that disables the CCR5 receptor that HIV uses to infect immune cells.
This transplant made the man’s immune system HIV-resistant.
In 2017, the team was able to stop giving him immunosuppressing drugs and, in November 2018, antiretroviral treatment was halted.
Other Cases
Two other people treated for cancer have previously been reported to have been cured of HIV in the same way.
Bone marrow transplantation is risky, and given that drug treatment can keep the virus in check, this will never be used to treat HIV alone.
An alternative approach being explored is to use gene editing to mutate the CCR5 gene in the immune system of people who are HIV-positive.
This could potentially provide a less risky and more accessible treatment option for HIV patients.
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