For a long time, the “Berlin Patient” was the only person who was considered cured of HIV. Now there are new results from a London patient who was freed from the AIDS pathogen with a special stem cell transplant.
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The patient’s immune system was rebuilt after a stem cell donation.
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It is only the second case worldwide: the HIV patient, referred to as the “London patient”, is probably cured. About two and a half years after the end of anti-HIV therapy, the patient was no longer able to detect a functional HI virus, doctors from the University of Cambridge report in the journal “The Lancet HIV”. The patient, who had blood cancer in addition to HIV, had previously received a special stem cell donation. The researchers emphasize that stem cell therapy is a high-risk treatment that is out of the question for most HIV patients.
To date, a cure for AIDS is fundamentally not possible. However, the pathogen can be kept in check using antiretroviral drugs. In the “London patient” as well as in the “Berlin patient” Timothy Brown, who has been cured since 2011, the immune system was rebuilt through stem cell therapy. The stem cell donor had a rare mutation that made him immune to the HI virus. The result is that the cells do not form a CCR5 receptor that most HI viruses need to dock to a cell in which they could multiply. (dpa)
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