The transplant method used in this woman’s case is invasive and not suitable for most HIV-positive people
An American patient would be the third person in the world, and the first woman, to have been cured of HIV.
The patient was being treated for leukemia when she received a stem cell transplant from a person with natural resistance to the AIDS virus.
The woman has now been virus-free for 14 months.
But experts say the transplant method used, which uses umbilical cord blood, is too risky to be suitable for most HIV-positive people.
The patient’s case was presented Tuesday at a medical conference in Denver and is the first time this method has been known to have been used as a functional cure for HIV.
The patient received an umbilical cord blood transplant as part of her cancer treatment and since then has not needed to take the antiretroviral therapy needed to treat HIV.
The case was part of a larger US study of people living with HIV who had received the same type of blood transplant to treat cancer or serious illnesses.
The transplanted cells that have been selected have a specific genetic mutation which means that they cannot be infected with the HIV virus.
Scientists believe that the immune system of recipients can thus develop resistance to HIV.
Analysis by James Gallagher, science and health correspondent
All of the stories of HIV recovery are truly remarkable and something to celebrate – they prove that it is possible.
But this approach does not bring us closer to a cure for the 37 million people living with HIV, most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.
The potential of stem cell transplants was demonstrated in 2007 when Timothy Ray Brown was the first person to be “cured” of HIV. He received a transplant from a donor naturally resistant to HIV.
Since then, the feat has only been repeated twice, with Adam Castillejo and now the New York patient.
All three had cancer and needed stem cell transplants to save their lives. Curing their HIV has never been the primary goal, and the therapy is too risky to be used in all HIV-positive people.
Remember that antiretroviral therapy gives HIV-positive people a life expectancy close to normal.
The main hopes for a cure remain focused on vaccines or drugs capable of eliminating the virus from the body.
This woman’s treatment used umbilical cord blood, unlike the previous two known cases where patients had received adult stem cells as part of a bone marrow transplant.
Umbilical cord blood is more widely available than previously used adult stem cells, and it does not require such close compatibility between donor and recipient.
Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International Aids Society, warned that the transplant method used in this case would not be a viable cure for most people living with HIV.
But she added that this case “confirms that a cure for HIV is possible and further reinforces the use of gene therapy as a viable strategy for a cure for HIV.”
The results of this most recent case study have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, so broader scientific understanding is still limited.
