A 53-year-old from Düsseldorf in Germany has become the third person in the world to be completely cured of HIV following a stem cell transplant using donor cells with a particular genetic mutation.
Two other cases with both HIV and cancer, patients in Berlin and London, have previously been reported as cured in scientific journals following the high-risk procedure.
Now the details of the Düsseldorf patient's cure have been revealed in the journal Nature Medicine.
The 53-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was diagnosed with HIV in 2008, then three years later with acute myeloid leukaemia, a life-threatening form of blood cancer. In 2013 he had a bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a female donor with a rare mutation in her CCR5 gene. The mutation has been found to stop HIV from entering cells.
The Düsseldorf patient then ceased antiretroviral therapy for HIV in 2018. Four years later, consistent testing found no trace of HIV returning in his body.
Read more - https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00479-2
