- A 53-year-old man is in remission from HIV 10 years after receiving a stem cell transplant.
- This is the third confirmed case of a stem cell transplant "curing" HIV.
A man has become the third confirmed person to be "cured" of HIV after having a stem cell transplant, according to researchers.
The patient, based in Dusseldorf, Germany, received a bone marrow transplant in February 2013 to treat his acute myeloid leukemia, a form of blood cancer.
10 years on from his transplant and four years after coming off HIV medication he is in remission from HIV, researchers wrote in Nature Medicine. As Insider's Hilary Brueck previously reported, scientists prefer to describe such patients as in "long term remission" rather than cured as it's not yet clear the results are permanent, but there is little if any evidence to show HIV replicating in past cases.
The patient said in a statement according to Sky News: "I still remember very well the sentence of my family doctor: 'Don't take it so hard. We will experience together that HIV can be cured.'"
He said: "At the time, I dismissed the statement as an alibi. Today, I am all the more proud of my worldwide team of doctors who succeeded in curing me of HIV — and at the same time, of course, of leukemia."
The Dusseldorf patient follows the Berlin and London patients
A stem cell transplant is where healthy stem cells are taken from a donor and transferred to another person so damaged blood cells can be replaced by healthy blood cells.
In this case, stem cells were taken from a donor who had a specific, rare gene mutation that protected their cells from getting infected with the HIV virus.
A person known as the Berlin Patient was the first to be "cured" of his HIV after a stem cell transplant for blood cancer in 2007, followed by the so-called London Patient who received a transplant in 2016.
It was reported last year that a fourth — referred to as the "City of Hope" patient — received the same treatment in California, but research has not yet been published on this case.
Others have been "cured" with other methods, including a woman whose body naturally suppressed the virus after contracting it in 1992, without needing stem cell transplant or medication.
The Dusseldorf patient stopped taking HIV drugs in 2018
The Dusseldorf patient was closely monitored after receiving his stem cell transplant in 2013. He was continuously tested and traces of HIV cells were found sporadically, but at a higher rate than those who are HIV-negative, the researchers said.
In November 2018, he stopped receiving antiretroviral therapy — a combination of drugs used to treat HIV— and there was no sign of acute retroviral syndrome, which are the initial signs of HIV in the body.
Tests found this continued to be the case for the following four years.
Stem cell transplants aren't available for most other HIV patients
Despite the success of this treatment, the researchers said stem cell transplants for HIV patients are "neither a low-risk nor an easily scalable procedure."
Stem cell transplants are complex treatments that can cause side effects including potentially life-threatening graft versus host disease, where a patient's cells see the new cells as foreign and attacks them.
Stem cell transplants also require the patient to have chemotherapy, which comes with further side effects.
But the team said that in-depth research like this "generates valuable insights that will hopefully guide future cure strategies."
Dr. Ioannis Jason Limnios, from the Clem Jones Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Bond University, Australia, who was not involved in the research, said in a statement: "This is important and exciting progress in the fight against AIDS, however the researchers carefully state that HIV remains hidden in other tissues of the body.
"So, it's not yet clear if type of therapy is a life-long 'cure,' and the risk of passing on HIV, whilst extremely low, will never be zero using this therapy alone."