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Doctors who carried out a stem cell transplant on an HIV-infected man with leukaemia in 2007 say they now believe the man to have been cured of HIV infection as a result of the treatment, which introduced stem cells which happened to be resistant to HIV infection.
The man received bone marrow from a donor who had natural resistance to HIV infection; this was due to a genetic profile which led to the CCR5 co-receptor being absent from his cells. The most common variety of HIV uses CCR5 as its ‘docking station’, attaching to it in order to enter and infect CD4 cells, and people with this mutation are almost completely protected against infection.
The case was first reported at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, and Berlin doctors subsequently published a detailed case history in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2009.
They have now published a follow-up report in the journal Blood, arguing that based on the results of extensive tests, “It is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient.”
SOURCE: AIDSMAP
could this be real
ReplyDeleteI'm with Wonder Man...can this really be real??? And what does it really mean for those who are infected? I wouldn't shout just yet!
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand. What does this mean? Can someone receive a bone marrow transplant from anyone, and if they can what would be the odds of the donor having the genetic mutation needed? It sounds like a lot of light but no heat.
ReplyDeleteLet us keep our fingers crossed that this will help to develop a cure.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteWONDER MAN - I WISH WITH ALL OF MY SOUL!
ReplyDeleteMECHADUDE2001 - THIS IS SO AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteCOREY - I WOULDN'T SHOUT JUST YET EITHER, BUT IT GIVES US SOMETHING TO GO ON...
ReplyDeleteCURIOUS - I THINK THEY CAN TAKE SOMETHING AWAY FROM THIS...I SURELY HOPE!
ReplyDeleteCHET - I HAVE EVERYTHING CROSSED!
ReplyDeleteDARK DAUGHTA - RIGHT THERE WITH YA!
ReplyDelete