In a stunning milestone for HIV research, a fifth man has been cured of the virus.
On Monday, researchers published their latest findings in Nature Medicine. The 53-year-old referred to as “the Dusseldorf patient,” has now become the fifth patient in the world to be cured of the potentially lethal virus thanks to a stem cell transplant. He initially received treatment in 2019. He has not taken medication since then, and it has been confirmed that he has no traces of the virus.
Scientists continue to look into stem cell transplants as a long-term means of curing patients living with HIV. While the use of antiretroviral medication can deem people living with the virus undetectable, the stem cell transplant offers complete eradication within the body. Though promising, the treatment is still extremely risky and hard to complete.
Stem cell transplants are typically used in cancer patients as a last resort, though it has been effective in people living with HIV as well. Each of the cured patients underwent stem cell transplants to also treat their blood cancers. Their donors each possessed an HIV-resistant mutation that essentially replaced a patient’s immune system. The issue is that this genetic mutation that makes people resistant to HIV only exists in 1% of the world’s population.
According to the National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research, the first person to be cured of HIV was Timothy Ray Brown, who became an advocate for HIV patients. Sadly, he passed away in 2020 from leukemia. Brown served as a case study of stem cell effectiveness in curing the disease which has claimed millions of lives, most notably during the devastating AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Since then, advancements in treatment have allowed people to live long and healthy lives, but the disease is incurable.
Dr. Bjorn-Erik Ole Jensen, who treated “the Dusseldorf patient,” is hopeful but recognizes more research is required.
“This obviously positive symbol makes hope, but there’s a lot of work to do,” Jensen confirmed.
