Another victory. This is the third case of probable cure of HIV after a bone marrow transplantthis new official case of recovery from the human immunodeficiency virus after a bone marrow transplant was revealed in a study published in Nature Medicine.
This man followed in Düsseldorf (Germany) received a stem cell transplant to treat leukemia. He had been diagnosed with HIV in 2008. He had then started antiretroviral therapy in 2010. And, in 2011, this patient was diagnosed with leukemia. As explained by the international consortium IciStem, of which the Institut Pasteur is a partner, he was then able to interrupt his antiretroviral treatment against HIV for four years. As a result, on February 20, the international consortium IciStem was officially able to announce that he is “probably cured of HIV infection”.
A stem cell transplant
After chemotherapy and a relapse, he received in 2013 a stem cell transplant, from an anonymous donor. Thanks to this transplant, the patient has renewed his immune system with a donor presenting a rare mutation of a gene called CCR5, a genetic mutation known to prevent the entry of HIV into cells.
“During a bone marrow transplant, the patient’s immune cells are completely replaced by those of the donor, which makes it possible to eliminate the vast majority of infected cells. It is an exceptional situation when all these factors coincide for this transplant to be a double success in curing leukemia and HIV”, underlines virologist Asier Sáez-Cirión, one of the authors of the study. .
Find a compatible donor
“It is necessary to find an immunogenically compatible donor to avoid rejection of the transplant”, explains Asier Sáez-Cirión. And to add: “Additionally, since less than 1% of the general population carry this protective mutation of HIV, it is very rare that a compatible marrow donor has this mutation. In the end, it is about ‘an exceptional situation when all these factors coincide for this transplant to be a double success in curing leukemia and HIV’.
According to the researchers, this patient no longer had any trace of the virus in his body. So far only two similar healing cases have been described in scientific journals. If this transplant was successful for this patient, this technique cannot be reproduced in all other patients.
