A man known as the Düsseldorf patient is the third person to be declared cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant that also treated his leukemia, a study said Monday.
Two other HIV and cancer cases, patients in Berlin and London, were previously reported to have recovered after high-risk procedures in scientific journals.
Details of the Düsseldorf patient’s recovery have now been published in the journal “Nature Medicine.
The 53-year-old man, whose name is unknown, was diagnosed with HIV in 2008 and three years later developed acute myeloid leukemia, a life-threatening form of blood cancer.
In 2013, she underwent a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a female donor with a rare mutation in her CCR5 gene. The mutation was found to prevent HIV from entering cells.
In 2018, the Düsseldorf patient then stopped taking antiretroviral therapy for HIV.
Four years later, successive tests found no sign of HIV back in his body.
The study stated that this third case of an HIV-1 cure provides valuable insights that will hopefully guide future treatment strategies.
Celebrating in a Big Way
The patient said in a statement that he was proud of my global medical team who were able to cure me of HIV – and of course leukemia at the same time.
He said he celebrated the transplant’s 10th anniversary in a big way on Valentine’s Day last week, adding that the donor was a guest of honor.
The recovery of two more people living with HIV and cancer, known as the New York and City of Hope patients, was announced at scientific conferences last year, although the case studies have not yet been published.
Although a cure for HIV has long been sought, bone marrow transplantation in this case is a difficult and dangerous operation, making it suitable only for a small number of patients suffering from HIV and blood cancers.
Finding a bone marrow donor with a rare CCR5 mutation can also be a big challenge.
One of the study’s co-authors, Asier Saez-Cirion of France’s Institute Pasteur, said that during transplantation, “the patient’s immune cells are completely replaced by the donor’s cells, allowing most of the infected cells to disappear.
This is an extraordinary situation where all factors come together for this transplant to be a successful cure for leukemia and HIV.
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