A third person has been cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell treatment for Leukemia

[Elim Garak]

A 53-year-old man in Düsseldorf, Germany, has been declared cured of HIV by doctors after a blood stem cell transplant to treat leukaemia – the third case of this kind.

The man has no signs of active infection four years after he stopped taking antiretroviral drugs. “We don’t think there’s a functional virus present,” says Björn Jensen at Düsseldorf University Hospital.

The “Düsseldorf patient” tested positive for HIV in 2008. In 2011, he developed leukaemia that was treated with chemotherapy, but it came back the following year. So, in 2013, the blood stem cells in the man’s bone marrow that give rise to immune cells – including the cancerous ones – were killed off by chemotherapy and then replaced with donor blood stem cells.



Crucially, doctors found a donor with 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 to prevent rejection of the donor cells and, in November 2018, antiretroviral treatment was halted.


Two other people treated for cancer have previously been reported to have been cured of HIV in the same way. However, because 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.

One alternative approach that is being explored is to use gene editing to mutate the CCR5 gene in the immune system of people who are HIV-positive.

 

[⠀X ⠀]

3rd person? Am I a joke to you?

 

[DonB90]

Raw Gang back up y'all

 

[Alix217]

Dr. Sebi cured this shyt decades ago. Just munch on some spinach and stick some turmeric in your peehole, brehs

 

[Georgiamuscle]

Raw Gang back up y'all

What are you Rawing that’s putting you at risk for HIV?

 

[GreatestLaker]

Dr. Sebi cured this shyt decades ago. Just munch on some spinach and stick some turmeric in peehole, brehs

 

[DonB90]

What are you Rawing that’s putting you at risk for HIV?

 

[Carl Tethers]

There's hope for @karim yet

 

[Brolic]

Residents of Atlanta can now rejoice.

 

[Luke Cage]

Damn, didn't know you could pack your shyt up move out, once you bought the house in virginia

 

[Rembrandt]

This shyt progressed so fast its incredible but sounds painful as fukk. Medical tech is amazing

 

[karim]

There's hope for @karim yet

I'm not a homophobe, so you trying to insult me as gay or whatever really doesn't affect me. You on the other hand apparently still haven't gotten over being called out as a rightwing bigot trying to push republican culture war narratives and circle jerking yourself with several aliases

 

[King Sun]

3rd person? Am I a joke to you?

Yes

 

[T. Dubb Ya]

What are you Rawing that’s putting you at risk for HIV?

nikkas love runnin up in buttholes smh.

 

[Duke Wy Lin]

What are you Rawing that’s putting you at risk for HIV?