A patient from the City of Hope
The fourth patient in the world managed to recover from HIV with the help of stem cells
Sofya Khromova, "Doctor Peter"
Doctors from the University of California were able to cure a 66-year-old man of HIV. A terrible diagnosis was made to him several decades ago — in 1988.
All these years, the man took the necessary medications. In addition to HIV infection, doctors also diagnosed him with leukemia, a blood cancer. To achieve remission, doctors decided to perform a life—saving stem cell transplant from a donor who had a rare genetic mutation - the homozygous CCR5 delta 32 mutation, which makes people resistant to most strains of HIV infection. This CCR5 mutation blocks HIV replication.
– This patient had a high risk of recurrence of AML (acute myeloid leukemia), so we had to pay special attention to the process of his treatment. Before the man was transplanted with stem cells, he underwent three different courses of chemotherapy, — says Ahmed Aribi, MD, Associate Professor of the Leukemia Department of the US Cancer Center "City of Hope" (City of Hope).
Now the man is completely healthy — the doctors managed to achieve a stable remission. Since recovering from the transplant, no signs of HIV virus replication have been found in his blood or tissue samples. The doctors decided that he could refuse antiretroviral therapy.
The man stopped taking the drugs in March 2021. To this day, he is under the close attention of specialists, regularly passes tests and goes for medical examinations. However, all studies confirm that there is no HIV infection in his body.
– This patient was the oldest who received stem cell transplantation, besides, he lived with HIV the longest before surgery and received the least amount of immunosuppressive therapy. After such success, we have clear evidence that with the right selection of a donor for patients living with HIV and developing blood cancer, we can use various types of chemotherapy to achieve double remission. This could open up completely new opportunities for elderly patients living with HIV and blood cancer," said Yana Dikter, clinical professor at City of Hope.
The third patient who managed to get rid of a serious disease once and for all thanks to stem cells was a woman. Cord blood saved her. Materials for transplantation in all cases were taken from donors who have a mutation that blocks HIV infection.
Perhaps it was the fourth: doctors have been monitoring the "Dusseldorf patient" since the beginning of 2019, but there have been no reports of complete remission or relapse yet.
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