17 hours ago A patient who was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 has become the second patient ever known to be cured of the infection that affects close to 37 million people worldwide after receiving a … >> Go To The Portal
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A man from London has become the second person in the world to be cured of HIV, doctors say. Adam Castillejo is still free of the virus more than 30 months after stopping anti-retroviral therapy.
“This approach is just too, too dangerous for the treatment of HIV by itself,” Deeks said. The London man who was reported to be cured of HIV this week and the Berlin patient, who was cured in 2007, both had cancer.
Doctors are hailing news of a potential breakthrough on a condition that has killed hundreds of thousands in the United States alone. But the operation is so onerous – and HIV now so manageable – that it could be a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease.
Doctors are hailing news of a potential breakthrough on a condition that has killed hundreds of thousands in the United States alone. But the operation is so onerous – and HIV now so manageable – that it could be a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease. HIV was once a death sentence – it has killed some 35 million people worldwide.
In 2011, Timothy Brown, the "Berlin Patient" became the first person reported as cured of HIV, three and half years after having similar treatment.
CCR5 is the most commonly used receptor by HIV-1 - the virus strain of HIV that dominates around the world - to enter cells.
Stem-cell transplants appear to stop the virus being able to replicate inside the body by replacing the patient's own immune cells with donor ones that resist HIV infection.
Mr Castillejo told the New York Times: "This is a unique position to be in, a unique and very humbling position.
The aggressive therapy was primarily used to treat the patients' cancers, not their HIV.
The tests suggest 99% of Mr Castillejo's immune cells have been replaced by donor ones. But he still has remnants of the virus in his body, as does Mr Brown. And it is impossible to say with absolute certainty his HIV will never come back.
This means the virus cannot penetrate cells in the body it normally infects. Researchers say it may be possible to use gene therapy to target the CCR5 receptor in people with HIV. It is the same receptor the now jailed Chinese scientist He Jiankui worked on when he created the world's first gene-edited babies.
The London-based patient becomes the second individual ever to be seemingly cured of HIV over a decade after the first: Timothy Ray Brown, AKA the “Berlin patient,” who almost died after his treatment, according to The New York Times.
CNN reports that the London patient, who has chosen anonymity, was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 and began taking antiretroviral drugs nine years later. He then underwent a bone-marrow transplant in 2016 after receiving a diagnosis of advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma, initially having been treated with chemotherapy.
Reuters reports that the British man underwent a transplant from a bone-marrow donor who has a rare genetic mutation, CCR5 delta 32, that resists HIV. And now, a year and a half after he last took antiretroviral medications, the London patient is no longer showing signs of the virus.
We can’t detect anything,” HIV biologist Ravindra Gupta — one of the doctors who treated the man — told Reuters. Gupta went on to tell the outlet that the patient was “in remission” and “functionally cured”; however, “It’s too early to say he’s cured” completely, said the doctor.
The ‘London patient’ joins the ‘Berlin patient’ as the second person in history to be cured of HIV, which is achieved via transplant of rare HIV-resistant stem cells. Adam Castillejo is a 40-year-old patient who has become the second person in the world to be cured of HIV.
The cure is not a drug that can be manufactured and ad ministered like the COVID-19 vaccine.
Even if this HIV cure was available in a mainstream way tomorrow, accessibility and affordability would prevent thousands from being able to take the treatment.
Scientists explain that this kind of percentage is similar to COVID vaccination, as in when enough cells are protected – the infection “cannot grow exponentially.”
The HIV epidemic in North America continues to have worse outcomes across racial lines, and overlaps with a severe opioids epidemic in socio-economically worse off areas. While Black people make up 13% of the US population, they are 43% of HIV-related deaths in 2018.