Author: Trisha Leigh Zeigenhorn / Source: did you know?
Over a decade ago, someone was functionally cured of HIV through a stem cell transfusion, but the success has proven hard to replicate. Now, though, a second person is showing no signs of the virus after 18 months, and though the team who worked with him are exercising caution, the results could offer hope to HIV-positive people everywhere.
The idea for curing these people via blood transfusion is born from the fact that people who receive a Δ32 mutation of the CCR5 gene from both parents are naturally resistant to HIV-1. The mutation is rare, however, so the chance that both of your parents are carriers is something like winning the genetic lottery – but what if we could inject stem cells from those lucky people into those already infected?
The approach is what led to Timothy Ray Brown, the “Berlin Patient” being functionally cured in 2007 – he has stayed that way since – after effectively having his immune system transplanted.
The treatments are expensive and dangerous, however, and the fact that Brown already had…
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