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A team of UK scientists and doctors recently published a story about a second HIV-positive man based in London, in long-term HIV remission (18 months) after receiving treatment for Hodgkins lymphoma. This unexpected success launched a new round of discussions about a potential treatment for HIV.
Since 2008, scientists have been trying to replicate the treatment that has cured the "Berlin patient" of HIV. At the time, many HIV researchers were excited to learn that this man, living with the human immunodeficiency virus in Berlin, had recently been treated for HIV. Acute myeloid leukemia seemed to have cured of HIV. Until now, the success of replication of this treatment was limited.
In 2008, at the retrovirus and opportunistic infections conference in Boston, Mbadachusetts, Berlin patient Timothy Ray Brown reported the news, which appeared to have cured his HIV.
In order to achieve this fortuitous "cure", Brown had to undergo aggressive treatment for acute myeloid leukemia involving two hematopoietic stem cell transplants – in which a patient's bone marrow is damaged – and complete irradiation of the body.
This complex treatment involves the destruction of the person's immune system by high doses of chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Then, the patient receives a new stem cell transplant from themselves or from a donor.
After receiving treatment, both patients were finally removed from their antiretroviral drugs and further examination showed that even with very sensitive blood tests, the team could not detect HIV in their blood. The inability to find HIV in their blood, badociated with the missing CCR5 receptor, is the HIV viral remission of the London patient reported earlier this month.
While a second patient with viral HIV remission with slightly less toxic anticancer treatment is certainly an encouraging progress, an 18-month remission does not mean a cure.
Moreover, even if London patient's cancer treatment was less intense, with just chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation, it was still toxic and was not a treatment that otherwise healthy people living with HIV should have. to commit.
More importantly, the HIV community has learned that Brown's case is not unique. This gives us another reason, and perhaps another reason, to hope for future revolutions in the scientific agenda of the fight against HIV.
The author has filed this report for The Conversation. She is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.
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