Another person cured of HIV with risky bone marrow transfer

To date, HIV has been eliminated in five patients who have received bone marrow transplants to treat cancer.

This electron microscope image made available by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows an H9 T cell, colored in blue, infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), yellow.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

There is “strong evidence” that the man known as the “Düsseldorf patient” has been cured of HIV, according to new research published this week.

The 53-year-old patient at Düsseldorf University Hospital in Germany, who had been diagnosed with HIV, received a bone marrow transplant intended to treat leukemia in 2013. The procedure replaced his bone marrow cells with those of a donor with a mutated gene for the CCR5 protein, which is found in white blood cells. HIV uses the protein to enter the cell, but it cannot attach to the mutated version.

It’s a setback in the 40-year search for a vaccine against what scientists consider a cunning virus. “We will learn from this study and continue forward.”

In 2019, it was reported that the patient showed no signs of the virus after three months without HIV medication. According to research published on Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, the man has remained HIV-free since then.

The “Düsseldorf patient,” whose name has not been made public, is at least the third person with HIV person to…

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