The oldest patient to date has been cured of HIV after a stem cell transplant for leukemia, researchers said Wednesday. While the transplant was planned to treat the now 66-year-old’s leukemia, doctors also sought a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS, a mechanism that first worked to cure the “Berlin patient,” Timothy Ray Brown. , in 2007. The latest patient, the fourth to be treated this way, is known as a “City of Hope” patient from the US facility in Duarte, California, where he was treated, because he does not want to be identified. In addition to being older, the patient also had HIV for a longer period of time, having been diagnosed in 1988 with what he described as a “death sentence” that killed many of his friends. He has been on antiretroviral therapy (ART) to control his condition for more than 30 years. Doctors presenting the data before the International Aids Society (IAS) meeting in 2022 said the case opened up access to treatment for older patients with HIV and blood cancers, particularly as the donor was not a family member. Describing a cure as the “holy grail”, Sharon Lewin, IAS president-elect, said the case provided “continued hope … and inspiration” for people with HIV and the wider scientific community, although it was unlikely to be choice for most people with HIV because of the risks of the procedure. Scientists believe the procedure works because the donor person’s stem cells have a specific, rare genetic mutation that means they lack the receptors used by HIV to infect cells. After the transplant three and a half years ago, which was followed by chemotherapy, the City of Hope patient stopped taking ART in March 2021. He has now been in remission from both HIV and leukemia for more than a year, said club. On Wednesday, researchers in Spain also presented evidence of a 59-year-old woman who belongs to a rare group of people known as “post-treatment controllers”. They can maintain undetectable viral loads after stopping ART and also provide clues to potential treatment, Lewin said. (Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Alison Williams)
