Successful cure of HIV infection after stem cell transplantation, study suggests

Date:
February 24, 2023
Source:
German Center for Infection Research
Summary:
Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for the treatment of
severe blood cancers is the only medical intervention that has
cured two people living with HIV in the past. An international
group of physicians and researchers has now identified another
case in which HIV infection has been shown to be cured in the same
way. The successful healing process of this third patient was for
the first time characterized in great detail virologically and
immunologically over a time span of ten years.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for the treatment of severe blood cancers is the only medical intervention that has cured two people living
with HIV in the past. An international group of physicians and researchers
from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and the United States has
now identified another case in which HIV infection has been shown to be
cured in the same way. In a study published this week in Nature Medicine,
in which DZIF scientists from Hamburg and Cologne played a leading role,
the successful healing process of this third patient was for the first
time characterised in great detail virologically and immunologically
over a time span of ten years.


==========================================================================
An infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was previously considered incurable. The reason for this is that the virus "sleeps" in
the genome of infected cells for long periods of time, making it invisible
and inaccessible to both the immune system and antiviral drugs. The "Du"sseldorf patient," a 53-year-old man, is now the third person in the
world to be completely cured of the HI virus by a stem cell transplant.

The patient, treated at the University Hospital Du"sseldorf for his HIV infection, had received a stem cell transplant due to a blood cancer. As
in the cases of the first two patients named "Berlin" and "London," the Du"sseldorf patient received stem cells from a healthy donor whose genome contains a mutation in the gene for the HIV-1 co-receptor CCR5. This
mutation makes it impossible for most HI viruses to enter human CD4+ T-lymphocytes, their major target cells.

Following transplantation, the patient was carefully monitored
virologically and immunologically for almost ten years. Using a variety
of sensitive techniques, the researchers analysed the patient's blood
and tissue samples to closely monitor immune responses to HIV and the
continued presence or even replication of the virus. Already shortly after transplantation and over the entire course of the study years, neither replicating virus nor antibodies or reactive immune cells against HIV
were detected. More than four years ago, the antiviral therapy against
HIV was discontinued. Ten years after transplantation and four years
after the end of anti-HIV therapy, the Du"sseldorf patient could be
declared cured by the international research consortium.

"This case of curing a chronic HIV infection by stem cell transplantation
shows that HIV can in principle be cured," says Prof. Julian Schulze zur Wiesch, DZIF scientist at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
and one of the study leads. "In particular, the results of this study
are also enormously important for further research into a cure for
HIV for the vast majority of people living with HIV for whom stem cell transplantation is not an option."
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# HIV_and_AIDS # Infectious_Diseases # Stem_Cells # STD
o Plants_&_Animals
# Virology # Mice # Biotechnology # Genetics
* RELATED_TERMS
o Bone_marrow_transplant o HIV_test o Stem_cell o
Stem_cell_treatments o Antiretroviral_drug o AIDS o
Adult_stem_cell o Salmonella_infection

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
German_Center_for_Infection_Research. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Bjo"rn-Erik Ole Jensen, Elena Knops, Leon Cords, Nadine Lu"bke,
Maria
Salgado, Kathleen Busman-Sahay, Jacob D. Estes, Laura
E. P. Huyveneers, Federico Perdomo-Celis, Melanie Wittner,
Cristina Ga'lvez, Christiane Mummert, Caroline Passaes, Johanna
M. Eberhard, Carsten Mu"nk, Ilona Hauber, Joachim Hauber, Eva Heger,
Jozefien De Clercq, Linos Vandekerckhove, Silke Bergmann, Ga'bor
A. Dunay, Florian Klein, Dieter Ha"ussinger, Johannes C. Fischer,
Kathrin Nachtkamp, Joerg Timm, Rolf Kaiser, Thomas Harrer, Tom
Luedde, Monique Nijhuis, Asier Sa'ez-Cirio'n, Julian Schulze zur
Wiesch, Annemarie M. J. Wensing, Javier Martinez- Picado, Guido
Kobbe. In-depth virological and immunological characterization
of HIV-1 cure after CCR5D32/D32 allogeneic hematopoietic stem
cell transplantation. Nature Medicine, 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-
023-02213-x ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230224165409.htm

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