A fourth individual, identified only as a ‘City of Hope’ patient, has been cured of HIV using an extremely risky stem cell procedure reserved for people facing both leukemia and HIV.
The unidentified 66-year-old man was treated at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, earning him his nickname. Since receiving a blood stem cell transplant at the beginning of 2019, there have been no signs of HIV replication in his body. He has been off HIV medicines for seventeen months.
The transplant is exceedingly risky, and surgeons must locate a donor with a rare genetic mutation that confers resistance to the virus. As a result, it is restricted to HIV patients who are also in the advanced stages of cancer.
“When I was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, I believed it to be a death sentence, as did many others,” the man stated in a hospital statement. I never believed I would see the day when I no longer have HIV. The city of Hope made this possible, and I am quite appreciative.
Researchers are still optimistic that this breakthrough will have a far-reaching effect and treat a large number of older HIV patients who are also suffering from a blood malignancy.
The hospital reports that the 66-year-old patient has had HIV since 1988, which is more than three decades ago.
He has been using antiretroviral therapy medications to manage his condition and avoid the progression to AIDS.
His HIV/AIDS diagnosis was the longest of all others whose sickness was also healed by a successful transplant.
In early 2019, the guy got a blood stem cell transplant after having reduced-intensity chemotherapy treatments designed to make the transplant more bearable.
The donor, who is also anonymous, has a rare genetic abnormality known as homozygous CCR5 Delta 32 but is unrelated to the male.
People with the mutation are naturally resistant to HIV because the CCR5 receptor on their immune cells can inhibit the replication pathways required by the virus.
There is a risk that the body’s immune system will reject and begin to attack the transplanted cells, which can be fatal.
In a few years, both the man’s cancer and HIV had vanished due to the efficacy of City of Hope’s physicians.
Dr. Jana Dickter, associate clinical professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at City of Hope, said during a presentation of the case at the AIDS 2022 conference, “We were thrilled to inform him that his HIV is in remission and he no longer needs to take the antiretroviral therapy he had been on for over 30 years.”
In 1988, he was diagnosed with HIV after witnessing a number of his friends pass away from AIDS during the disease’s early stages. He can now enjoy this medical achievement.’
Robert Stone, president and chief executive officer of City of Hope, stated, “We are happy to have helped the City of Hope patient achieve remission from both HIV and leukemia.” It is humbling to know that our pioneering science in the bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, as well as our pursuit of the best precision treatment in cancer, has helped to alter the life of this patient.
Every day, the entire City of Hope team is honored to make a difference in the lives of people with cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening illnesses.
Approximately one-eighth of people infected with HIV in the United States do not realize they are infected, according to the most recent government data.
In 2019, there were approximately 34,800 new illnesses. Even though the number is significant, it represents a decrease of approximately 70 percent from the peak of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The number has also decreased gradually over time.
Many use antiretroviral medications that prevent the virus from turning into AIDS, but they must still live with HIV for the rest of their lives.
Although this treatment is promising and could offer hope to many suffering individuals, its applications are limited.
Due to the inherent hazard of the surgery, it is only permissible to execute it on patients who are terminally ill.
Nonetheless, researchers are optimistic that recent advances will permit the development of more effective medicines for the virus.
If the correct donor can be discovered, the City of Hope patient’s case could pave the way for other elderly individuals with HIV and blood malignancies to get a stem cell transplant and achieve remission for both diseases, according to Dickter.
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the ‘Berlin patient,’ was the first person to get this treatment successfully. His bone marrow transplant in 2007 eradicated the virus from his body.
Although he subsequently passed away from cancer, his narrative was a milestone in HIV therapy and paved the way for future discoveries.
Additionally, different modalities of treatment are being developed. A New York lady got a ‘haploidentical cord transplantation,’ which takes bone marrow and blood from the donor’s umbilical cord.
Doctors note that her body responded favorably to the treatment, and she rapidly observed excellent benefits.
Despite ceasing HIV therapy over a year ago, she has not seen a resurgence of the infection. Multiple scans of her body reveal no HIV-replicating cells, and her cells cannot be infected in a laboratory setting.
Similarly to the City of Hope patient, the treatment that was performed on her is dangerous and cannot be repeated on people who are not in a severe position.
