2 Men Cleared of HIV Virus After Stem Cell Transplant

[Kazimiera]

Boston-Researchers have reported that two men have had their bodies cleared of the HIV/Aids virus after receiving stem cell transplants for Cancer.

Both patients, who were treated in Boston and had been on long-term drug therapy to control their HIV, received stem-cell transplants after developing lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. Since the transplants, doctors have been unable to find any evidence of HIV infection, Timothy Henrich of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told an International AIDS Society conference in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

While it is too early to say for sure that the virus has disappeared from their bodies altogether, one patient has now been off antiretroviral drug treatment for 15 weeks and the other for seven weeks.

Using stem-cell therapy is not seen as a viable option for widespread treatment of HIV/Aids, since it is extremely expensive, but the latest cases could open new avenues for fighting the disease, which infects about 34 million people worldwide.

The latest cases resemble that of Timothy Ray Brown, known as “the Berlin patient,” who became the first person to be cured of HIV after receiving a bone marrow transplant for leukemia in 2007. There are, however, important differences.

While Brown’s doctor used stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation, known as CCR5 delta 32, which renders people virtually resistant to HIV, the two Boston patients received cells without this mutation.

“Dr Henrich is charting new territory in HIV eradication research,” Kevin Robert Frost, chief executive officer of the Foundation for AIDS Research, which funded the study, said in a statement.

Scientific advances since HIV was first discovered more than 30 years ago mean the virus is no longer a death sentence and the latest antiretroviral Aids drugs can control the virus for decades. But many people still do not get therapy early enough, prompting the World Health Organization to call for faster roll-out of medicines after patients test positive.

The HIV virus may be hiding in other organs such as the liver, spleen or brain and could return months later, Herich warned.

Further testing of the men’s cells, plasma and tissue for at least a year will help give a clearer picture on the full impact of the transplant on HIV persistence with the patients going back on the drugs if there is a viral rebound.

http://za.news.yahoo.com/2-men-clear...065301896.html

[Mason8]

That's very interesting, thanks for sharing .