Researchers reported on Tuesday (February 15) that a US patient with Leukemia had become first woman and third person till now to be cured of HIV. She received a stem cell transplant from a donor who had natural resistance to virus that causes AIDS.
“Well, this, first of all, tells us or confirms that a cure is indeed possible, and scientists need to keep working to find a cure,” Sharon Lewin, President-Elect of the International AIDS Society, told Reuters.
The woman is middle-aged and of mixed ethnicity. Her case was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver. This is very first case involving umbilical cord blood. This is a newer approach that may make the treatment available to more people.
The woman received cord blood to treat her acute myeloid leukemia. It is a cancer that starts in blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. The woman has been free of the virus for 14 months without the need of anti-HIV treatment.
“This would be a treatment for the modest number of people who have a condition that requires a transplant, have HIV and are able to identify a match. And I think the pool of potential matches would be expanded by using umbilical cord as the source, which is what we demonstrated in our patient for the first time,” Dr. Marshall Glesby said about the “New York patient,” as the woman is referred to since she was treated at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.
The cured patient was diagnosed with HIV in 2013 and leukemia in 2017 and Dr. Glesby has been on her direct patient care along the process.
The two prior cases occurred in males – one white and one Latino – who had received adult stem cells, which are more frequently used in bone marrow transplants.
Lewin said bone marrow transplants are not a viable strategy to cure most people living with HIV.
“What this case tells us is that if you can make cells resistant to HIV, you can stop the virus coming back,” Lewin said, expressing optimism for this treatment to become a pathway to a cure, however many years down the road.
(With inputs from agencies)
