Stem Cell transplant cures HIV in patient

[Sosa]

On the heels of World AIDS Day (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/nations-commemorate-aids-_n_790641.html#s196271) comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the "Berlin Patient," received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing "strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved (http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/abstract/blood-2010-09-309591v1)."
Brown's case paves a path for constructing a permanent cure for HIV through genetically-engineered stem cells.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/hiv-cure-berlin-patient_n_796521.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=830614,b=facebook

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

If this is true then this is stunning news. As far as I'm aware there is nothing we know of (yet) that can cure HIV; only methods to stall its destruction.

Of course if this pans out I predict an aneurysm on the part of those who believe HIV/AIDS is just punishment for something or other.

[bcbm]

Of course if this pans out I predict an aneurysm on the part of those who believe HIV/AIDS is just punishment for something or other.

well they probably also think stem cells are evil abortionist science, so i'm sure this all somehow makes sense in their world view.

[Lyev]

Wasn't there also a case a while back where HIV (although might of possibly been cancer) was cured with a bone marrow transplant or something like that? I think that a lot of stem cell treatment uses the cells in bone marrow so it might have been similar to this.

[Aurora]

Can anyone explain how this is remotely possible? from what i know of HIV and stem cells it doesn't make sense.
Also stuff like this pops up all the time and nothing ever comes from it, so forgive me if i'm skeptical

[Sean]

Of course if this pans out I predict an aneurysm on the part of those who believe HIV/AIDS is just punishment for something or other.
Not really. God quite obviously smites the pockets of the poor so that only the pure of heart and fat of wallet can afford such expensive treatment is a possible angle.

[Sasha]

Can anyone explain how this is remotely possible? from what i know of HIV and stem cells it doesn't make sense.
Also stuff like this pops up all the time and nothing ever comes from it, so forgive me if i'm skeptical


the guy was getting treatment for leukemia (some people have all the luck in the world huh? HIV AND cancer), the treatment involves whiping out your immune system and then transplant stemmcells who whil then hopefully turn into white blood-cells who will attack the cancer again. The stemcells they used for the transplant came from someone who is immune to HIV (about 1% of caucasians)
i dont know if it whas chance or intentional, i expect the latter as there always was an theoretical possibility this should work but normally its completly unethical to whipe out an HIV patients immunesystem as an experiment as that will give you full blown aids and kill you verry fast. this guy just had nothing to lose anymore.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Not really. God quite obviously smites the pockets of the poor so that only the pure of heart and fat of wallet can afford such expensive treatment is a possible angle.

That's why social medicine is so important - there's few things worse than people dying of treatable conditions.


the guy was getting treatment for leukemia (some people have all the luck in the world huh? HIV AND cancer), the treatment involves whiping out your immune system and then transplant stemmcells who whil then hopefully turn into t-cells who will attack the cancer again. The stemcells they used for the transplant came from someone who is immune to HIV (about 1% of caucasians)
i dont know if it whas chance or intentional, i expect the latter as there always was an theoretical possibility this should work but normally its completly unethical to whipe out an HIV patients immunesystem as an experiment as that will give you full blown aids and kill you verry fast. this guy just had nothing to lose anymore.

Normally it would be a very bad idea to wipe out someone's immune system and start from scratch, but my understanding is that HIV co-opts the immune system of its host for the purposes of spreading itself throughout the body, which is why HIV/AIDS drugs work by suppressing the immune system to some degree.

Considering the aggressiveness and mutability of the HIV virus, it may well be that a "scorched earth" approach is precisely what it takes to combat this disease.

[Sasha]

Normally it would be a very bad idea to wipe out someone's immune system and start from scratch, but my understanding is that HIV co-opts the immune system of its host for the purposes of spreading itself throughout the body, which is why HIV/AIDS drugs work by suppressing the immune system to some degree.


dont think so, my positive friends are always having their T-cells counted to see if the their disease is progressing, so having an functioning imune system is an indication of health under HIV patients, AIDS patients die from silly things like the flu etc because their imune system gets destroyed. As far as i know on this moment all HIV treatment involves combination therapy with antiretroviraldrugs.
maybe CotR can explain, she works with HIV patients.

[Widerstand]

That's why social medicine is so important - there's few things worse than people dying of treatable conditions.



Normally it would be a very bad idea to wipe out someone's immune system and start from scratch, but my understanding is that HIV co-opts the immune system of its host for the purposes of spreading itself throughout the body, which is why HIV/AIDS drugs work by suppressing the immune system to some degree.

Considering the aggressiveness and mutability of the HIV virus, it may well be that a "scorched earth" approach is precisely what it takes to combat this disease.


dont think so, my positive friends are always having their T-cells counted to see if the their disease is progressing, so having an functioning imune system is an indication of health under HIV patients, AIDS patients die from silly things like the flu etc because their imune system gets destroyed. As far as i know on this moment all HIV treatment involves combination therapy with antiretroviraldrugs.
maybe CotR can explain, she works with HIV patients.

Uhm, HIV primarily infects (alters the genetic code of) T-cells and all sort of other cells of the immune system, all of which are white blood cells. By killing them/rendering them useless it weakens your body's immune system, clearing the way for all sorts of other diseases.

Leukemia, being a form of cancer, causes your white blood cells to reproduce abnormally fast, also caused by a genetic alteration.

It sort of makes sense that wiping out white blood cells would affect the AIDS spread. However, I'm skeptical.

For one, the patient could have just fallen below the "detectable" level of infection. Antibody tests work with detecting the immune system's reaction (which obviously doesn't exist after wiping out the immune system). Antigen tests seek to find the virus itself, but one of them is pretty useless during most stages of infection, and the other, more popular one I imagine to be greatly dependent on there being a big enough amount of virus molecules, which would not be the case here, meaning that after a "restart" of the virus, it would find nothing, yet infection would still exist.

Also, AIDS doesn't just infect white blood cells. In any case, there most likely are some single virus molecules still floating around, which could easily infect any of the newly formed blood cells. Though I may be wrong about how thoroughly or lengthy leukemia treatment kills off the white blood cells.

The best chance is AIDS immune stem cells having been implanted. That could indeed halt the spread of the virus.