Recently, at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, an American research group
presented
the latest advancement in disease studies: A patient with acute myeloid leukemia was cured of human immunodeficiency virus, more commonly known as HIV.
HIV emerged in the 1980s and has since claimed millions of lives. The virus attacks the body’s immune system, making a person more vulnerable to other diseases. It can only be spread through contact with bodily fluids from a person who has HIV. HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, if left untreated.
The cured 64-year-old woman was treated in 2017 once her cancer went into remission. She received stem cell transplants combined with umbilical cord blood from an individual who was found to be naturally resistant to HIV.
Since then, the patient has shown no signs of relapse. Researchers and other medical professionals say that she is “functionally cured” because HIV hasn’t been detected in her blood since. Still, it will take longer to ensure that the virus is gone entirely. Dr. John Torres, NBC’s medical correspondent,
said
that “the virus … can hide out and a decade later it can pop out again, so they’re keeping a very close eye on it.”
If the patient’s remission continues, she will be only the third documented case of an HIV cure and the first to be cured through umbilical cord blood cells. The previously cured patients received bone marrow and blood stem cells that contained HIV-resistant mutations. The first cured patient, known as the “Berlin patient,” was in HIV remission for 12 years before dying from leukemia in
2020
.
The case is part of a more extensive study, led by Dr. Yvonne Bryson (University of California, Los Angeles) and Dr. Deborah Persaud (Johns Hopkins University), which follows 25 individuals with HIV who received transplants with stem cells from umbilical cord blood for a series of severe conditions. The federal government financially supports the study.
While treatment success is a positive sign, Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, warns that the treatment may not be ready for a larger population. Lewin told
the
Telegraph
that the world is still many years away from a cure.
Lewin, an HIV and infectious diseases expert at the University of Melbourne, said bone marrow transplants are “not a viable large-scale strategy for curing HIV” but strengthen the case for gene therapy as a practical approach to curing HIV.
“Taken together, these three cases of a cure post stem cell transplant all help in teasing out the various components of the transplant that were absolutely key to a cure.”
Despite the good news for immunocompromised patients, stem cell therapies come with some hesitation from the FDA.
“Some unscrupulous providers offer stem cell products that are both unapproved and unproven,” the agency said in a 2019
post
on its website. Stem cell therapies may offer treatment for diseases where few treatment options are available. Still, the FDA warns that some patients are vulnerable to stem cell treatments that are harmful or even illegal.
To stay safe, the FDA suggests that all patients ensure that any stem cell treatment received is FDA-approved or studied under an Investigational New Drug Application, a clinical investigation proposal allowed to advance by the FDA.
In 2019,
Timothy Lunceford
, who suffered years of back pain, received an injection of umbilical cord blood publicized by pain doctors as an effective cure for tender joints. Yet only a day after receiving treatment, Timothy began to feel a throbbing pain in his back. After another day, he had a fever and could not move. Doctors found E. coli and other bacteria in his blood when he was rushed to the hospital.
On the other hand, the most successful stem cell therapy, a bone marrow transplant, has existed for
more than 40 years
.
While there is still no definitive cure to the decades-old HIV virus, the most recent remission report provides a comprehensive look at how medical professionals can understand and treat HIV for years to come.
