The virus that causes immunodeficiency (HIV) in a woman in the United States has decreased after she received a stem cell transplant from a relative and umbilical cord blood from an unrelated newborn.
According to Sputnik, she is the first woman in the world and the fourth patient to experience a reduction in the HIV virus after undergoing treatment through gene therapy. The woman, whose identity is kept confidential, was treated at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.
HIV virus (yellow) surrounding patient cells. (Photo: NYTimes)
The stem cells introduced into the patient’s body carried a mutation that made the CCR5 gene – the pathway for the HIV virus to invade the human immune system – a strong gatekeeper against the virus.
If not treated promptly, long-term HIV infection can progress to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which poses a life-threatening risk to the patient.
Although she has not been declared completely cured, she has stopped taking antiretroviral medication – a type of medication that HIV patients must take daily – since October 2020. The patient underwent the stem cell transplant in August 2017.
HIV is known to be one of the most stubborn infectious viruses in the world. Most treatment methods have been rendered ineffective against this virus. Before 1996, being infected with HIV was considered a death sentence for every patient.
Although many new drugs have been developed to prevent infection from occurring or to keep the virus at low levels, there is still no proven effective treatment method like stem cell transplantation.
