The scientists of the research team announced that a 53-year-old man from Germany, better known as the "Patient from Dusseldorf", has been completely cured of HIV, which makes him the fifth such person in the world.
The results of his successful treatment became public in 2019. However, scientists could not confirm the cure until now. He has no detectable HIV cells in his body, although he stopped HIV therapy 4 years ago. Therefore, it really is a cure, not a long-term remission, said Dr. Jensen, detailing the research in a new issue of the journal "Nature Medicine".
"When you hear about a cure for HIV, it sounds incredible, considering all the challenges we've been through. However, this is still the exception to the rule," said Dr. Todd Ellerin.
This patient underwent a stem cell transplant due to blood cancer. The patient from Dusseldorf has joined a small group of people who have been cured by stem cell transplants. Their donors had the CCR5-delta 32 mutation, which prevents HIV from entering the cell.
Only 1% of the population has this genetic mutation, which makes them resistant to HIV.
Stem cell transplantation is a high-risk procedure that completely replaces the immune system of
the patient and is not suitable as a cure for all HIV patients. The primary goal is to cure a person of cancer, but it has also been proven to cure HIV-infected patients.
"This is absolutely a positive symbol of hope, but there is also a lot of work ahead of us." I think we can learn a lot from this patient and similar HIV cases, how to make future strategies safer," said Dr. Jensen.
"Every time they cure a patient, scientists gain invaluable insights that help them find a cure for everything in the future. This is a very clear step forward in improving the science itself and gaining an understanding of what it actually takes to cure HIV." said Dr. Ellerin.