Patient is ‘free’ of HIVafter stem cell therapy

SCIENTISTS believe they may have developed a possible cure for the HIV virus using stem cell transplants.

A British man had the revolutionary treatment 35 months ago – since when no trace of the HIV virus has been detected in his bloodstream.

Doctors say the virus has gone into ‘complete remission’.

The unnamed man – who is referred to as ‘the London Patient’ – must continue to be observed before they can say the disease is completely cured because the virus can lay dormant for years.

But they are hopeful that the treatment has ‘eliminated HIV’.

The London Patient is only the second recorded case of the virus going into complete remission.

Twelve years ago, similar treatment was given in Germany to ‘the Berlin Patient’ – who is still clear of HIV. The patient, Timothy Ray Brown, went public and appeared with Hollywood stars such as Sharon Stone to raise awareness of HIV research.

Yesterday, Mr Brown said he would like to meet his counterpart and encourage him to reveal his identity because ‘it’s been very useful for giving hope’. The London Patient caught HIV-1, the most common and deadly form of HIV virus, in 2003. He has been on HIV anti-retroviral drug therapy since 2012, the same year he developed advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

His treatment was possible because a stem cell donor was found to treat his cancer who happened to have a genetic mutation that gives resistance to HIV-1 and prevents cells being infected by it.

These stem cells were injected into the London Patient’s bone marrow in 2016. In addition, he received chemotherapy for his cancer that may also have killed off HIV-infected cells.

Normal white blood cells have receptors that the HIV virus latch on to so they can invade the cell and use its own machinery to create more virus particles.

But the donor’s stem cells have genes that give resistance to HIV. ‘Mutant’ white blood cells – produced after the stem cell therapy – have incomplete receptors, so they cannot be invaded. Because the virus can no longer reproduce, the body can fight off remaining virus cells. The patient was kept on anti-retroviral drugs for 16 months before they were stopped to see if the virus was beaten.

The HIV virus is now undetectable, the journal Nature reported.

Researchers hope it has been eliminated, but warn it is too early to say for certain that the London Patient has been cured of HIV.

The case gives hope to the 37million people with HIV globally, of whom one million die each year. Only 59% receive anti-retroviral drugs, and drug-resistant HIV is becoming a concern.

Professor Ravindra Gupta, of University College London, said: ‘At the moment the only way to treat HIV is with medications that suppress the virus, which people need to take their entire lives.

‘Finding a way to eliminate the virus entirely is an urgent global priority, but is difficult because the virus integrates into the white blood cells of its host.’

‘An urgent global priority’