A Norwegian man has been declared effectively HIV-free after receiving a stem cell transplant from his brother, marking a major breakthrough in medical science.
According to doctors, the cure came about because the patient’s older brother had a rare, virus-blocking genetic mutation. As a result, the 63-year-old Oslo patient has become one of only 10 people globally to achieve long-term HIV remission after a transplant.
The high-risk procedure was initially intended to treat the patient’s bone marrow cancer. Typically, these “cures” require a donor with a rare mutation of the CCR5 gene, which effectively “shuts the door” against HIV.
This mutation is exceptionally rare, found in only about 1 percent of Northern Europeans.
As a result of the transplant, the donor’s cells gradually replace the patient’s immune cells in the bone marrow, blood and intestinal tissues. During sample evaluation two years after transplantation, doctors found no sign of HIV DNA integration into the host DNA.
The patient even stopped taking anti-retroviral drugs designed to reduce HIV levels in the body after two years.
Since 2006, the Norwegian man has been living with HIV. In 2017, he was diagnosed with a fatal blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome.
Expressing his happiness, the patient said, “It was like winning the lottery twice.”
“Replication-competent virus and HIV-specific T cell responses were absent, and a gradual decline in HIV antibody responses was observed,” the researchers wrote in a study published in the journal Medicine. Nature Microbiology.
They said, “The absence of HIV-specific T cell responses in our data supports the hypothesis that such absence is related to sustained HIV remission.”
The case study provides new insight into how HIV can be cured. According to this model study, if someone receives donor cells with specific HIV-resistant mutations, it is highly possible that the recipient will experience HIV remission and complete cure from the virus.
According to the researchers, although such a method does not seem practical for most people, this method will help predict long-term remission.
