A 53-year-old German became the
third person
in the world to
be cured of HIV
(human immunodeficiency virus).
after undergoing a
stem cell transplant
.
This was reported on Monday by the English magazine
Nature Medicine
, which published an article confirming the case of the "Düsseldorf patient" -whose identity was not disclosed- and detailed the treatment he underwent.
He did so by citing the international consortium IciStem, which explained that this third patient had received a stem cell transplant as part of the therapy for
leukemia.
After this operation, the man underwent a series of tests to assess his state of health.
Upon seeing the results, the doctors gave him the authorization to interrupt the
treatment he was carrying out against HIV
(the virus that causes AIDS)
.
The patient had received a stem cell transplant.
It is that after the transplant, the doctors did not find any trace of the viral particles of the disease, nor of the viral reserves of the same.
Neither of the immune response against the virus.
It had been cured
.
And his name had been added to that of Timothy Ray Brown, from Berlin, and Adam Castillejo, from London, the only two patients in the world who had managed to defeat the disease through this type of intervention.
The first of them did it in 2009 while the second 10 years later, in 2019.
Timothy Ray Brown was the first patient to be cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant.
He passed away in 2020 from cancer.
Photo: AP
In this sense, the three patients who managed to be definitively cured of HIV have the same point in common:
they all suffered from blood cancer
and for this reason they were treated with a
stem cell transplant
, which profoundly renewed their immune system.
However, this is not the only similarity: in all three cases,
their donor had a rare mutation in the CCR5 gene
.
This is a genetic change that prevents HIV from entering cells.
"During a bone marrow transplant, the patient's immune cells are fully replaced by donor cells, which makes it possible
to eliminate the vast majority of infected cells
," explains virologist Asier Sáez-Cirion, one of the authors, in a statement. of the study.
Why can't this treatment be given to all HIV patients?
The scientist added about the treatment: "It is an
exceptional situation
when all these factors coincide for this transplant to be a double success, both to cure leukemia and HIV."
In this regard, experts explained that only 1% of the population has the genetic mutation that protects HIV, few stem cell donors have it.
They also admit that these are cases that give hope to scientists to find a cure for AIDS.
However, they remember that a stem cell transplant is
a risky treatment
and that it is not adapted to the situation of the majority of HIV patients.
The story of Adam Castillejo, the second patient cured
Castillejo was diagnosed with HIV in 2003, when antiretroviral treatment was not as advanced as it is today.
It was tough news, like the one that came in 2012 when he was diagnosed with cancer that was added as a complication.
Although without knowing it, it was the beginning of a solution to HIV.
Adam Castillejo, the second patient who managed to overcome HIV after a transplant.
Photo: The New York Times
"In 2012 I was diagnosed with very aggressive stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma, and at the time that was another death sentence after the first one in 2003 for HIV, although this time it was different because I could tell people I had cancer and feel support; with HIV I couldn't because people tend to discriminate and stigmatize," the London patient told EFE.
Initial treatment did not work and in 2015 he was given the option of a bone marrow transplant from a donor who had a rare mutation, called CCR5 Delta32.
This prevents the entry of the virus into the target cells, with which he could be cured of both diseases.
The treatment worked and currently Castillejo, at 42, is in remission from cancer and HIV, but at a very high cost.
"My life is like the one that people lived with the coronavirus, with isolation and a mask for a long time, with also great risks of having infections, complications and the possibility of secondary cancer," he stressed.
DD
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