newYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The oldest patient ever cured of HIV after undergoing a leukemia stem cell transplant, researchers reported Wednesday.
The transplant was planned to cure the now 66-year-old leukemia, but doctors also suspected the virus that causes AIDS, the mechanism that first worked to cure “Berlin patient” Timothy Ray Brown. Searching for naturally resistant donors., 2007.
The fourth and most recent patient cured in this manner is known as the “City of Hope” patient, after the US facility in Duarte, California, where he was treated.
Some HIV patients with ‘strong immune systems’ may clear HIV infection spontaneously: study
As well as being the oldest, the patient had been living with HIV the longest and was diagnosed in 1988 as a “death sentencer” who had killed many of his friends.
He has been on antiretroviral therapy (ART) to control his condition for over 30 years.
Physicians who presented the data ahead of the 2022 conference of the International AIDS Society (IAS) said the case opens up the possibility of treatment for older patients with HIV and blood cancers, especially because the donor is not a family member. said he was
IAS president-elect Sharon Lewin, who describes the treatment as the “holy grail”, said the case provided “continuing hope and inspiration” for people living with HIV and the wider scientific community. It is an option for most HIV patients due to the risks of the procedure.
Scientists believe this process works because the donor’s stem cells have a specific, rare genetic mutation that causes them to lack the receptors that HIV uses to infect cells.
HIV prevalence down 73% from 1980s peak, CDC estimates
After undergoing chemotherapy three and a half years ago, the City of Hope patient stopped using ART in March 2021. He is now in remission from both HIV and leukemia for over a year, the team said.
On Wednesday, Spanish researchers also released details of a 59-year-old woman, one of a rare group known as “post-treatment managers”. She was able to maintain an undetectable viral load even after stopping ART, which could also provide clues to potential treatments, Lewin said.