Stem Cell Research Suggests a Foreseeable Cure to HIV

Over the last decade, a small group of HIV-positive patients have undergone bone marrow transplants involving HIV-resistant stem cells and have, since the procedure, been declared free of the virus. Moreover, earlier this year, an additional patient received a stem-cell transplant from umbilical cord blood and has also been deemed cured.

image | biospace.com

Since the start of the HIV epidemic, over 40 million have died from diseases contracted as a result of AIDS.

In the 1980s, the diagnosis was a death sentence. Today, it means lifetime treatment. Thanks to advances in medicine, HIV-positive individuals are prescribed a daily dose of antiretroviral therapy (known as ART) to keep the disease at bay and oftentimes undetectable, and HIV-negative individuals can take pre-exposure prophylaxis (known as PrEP) for prevention.

The introduction of stem cells in medical research and clinical practice has, for the first time, suggested a cure.

In 2008, ‘The Dusseldorf Patient’ was diagnosed with HIV. In 2013, after developing leukemia as a side-effect, he underwent a stem cell transplant from an adult donor’s bone marrow. Since the procedure, he has gone off ART and has continued being HIV free without remission.

NDTV’s Amit Chaturvedi quoted the patient:

“Today, I am all the more proud of my worldwide team of doctors who succeeded in curing me of HIV – and at the same time, of course, of [leukemia].”

The success of this stem cell transplant — along with two others of the same nature — does not suggest a global solution. The procedure is both high-risk (viz. postoperative infections if the cells don’t match) and not widely available (viz. not a sustainable, affordable option, especially in resource-poor nations).

The Washington Post’s Kelsey Ables reports:

“Sharon Lewin, director of the Doherty Institute in Melbourne and president of the International AIDS Society, … acknowledged that the approach is ‘not a reasonable strategy for 38 million people living with HIV’ globally but said it offers other avenues for more ‘scalable’ research.”

image | hivinfo.nih.gov

Even more recently, there is more good news to share.

‘The New York Patient’. a mixed-race woman, was cured of the HIV virus following a stem-cell transplant from umbilical cord blood to treat leukemia. She was diagnosed HIV-positive in 2017 and – like many who live with the virus – has been taking ART to prevent it from progressing into AIDS. Since the transplant, she has stopped taking her daily medication, which researchers have recognized as long-term remission.

Forbes reports:

“Stem cells from umbilical cord blood are both more readily available and do not need to be matched as closely as adult cells do, which ‘broadens the opportunities’ for people of all racial backgrounds living with HIV to be cured, said study coleader Yvonne Bryson, a professor of pediatrics at UCLA.”

According to the Jerusalem Post, almost 38 million people around the world currently live with HIV. And, while antiretroviral medication has introduced lifelong remission, for decades, there has been no foreseeable cure.

Stem cell research and its application has dramatically changed that narrative.