Can marrow transplant kill HIV cells?

Marrow transplantation can become a solution for thorough HIV treatment in the future.

Ten years ago, Timothy Brown - a patient in Berlin - was confirmed to cure HIV. It is thought that marrow transplantation to treat cancer - from a person with HIV immunity - helped kill the virus in his body. But evidence from a group of people shows that the immune response that occurs after transplantation may be the cause of killing HIV-infected cells.

Cancer treatment is very harsh, so it is not usually used for normal people or other diseases. However, if the theory is proven, we will have more insight into anti-HIV methods.

Timothy Brown is still the only patient who has not been infected again for a long time. A few others have been "cured" - although some viruses remain dormant in their cells and they do not have to inject antiviral drugs anymore.

HIV targets immune cells, causing the body to lose its ability to defend itself against other infections.

HIV targets immune cells, causing the body to lose its ability to defend itself against other infections (if not treated). In the above case, Brown received a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia.

Bone marrow comes from a person with a genetic mutation in the CCR5 gene that makes immune cells resistant to HIV. But some believe that the side effects of transplants are part of the cleanup of the HIV virus from the body.

When implanting, donor immune cells can attack the recipient's cells. Brown's bone marrow transplant has led to this phenomenon, causing his immune cells and HIV viruses to be attacked and destroyed.

According to Javier Martínez-Picado, from the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute in Barcelona, ​​Spain, six more people are infected with HIV and have cancer like Brown. After doing the same treatment, it seems that the HIV virus has no longer existed in their bodies. Only one in six people received bone marrow from a person with a CCR5 mutation, but all 6 killed the HIV-infected cells.

We are still not sure if these 6 people will not be infected with HIV again when they stop taking anti-HIV drugs. According to Martínez-Picado, this could happen to the first person next year.

Annemarie Wensing of Utrecht University Medical Center, Netherlands, said: "If the theory is correct, this will be a great discovery" - the person who presented data 2 of 6 researches in medicine European Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Vienna last week. All HIV tests on 6 individuals tested were negative for 2 years.

Health organizations are continuing to study marrow transplant cases to learn more about the hidden mechanism of HIV.

Recently, there is another promising approach to HIV treatment. It is called "kick and kill" , this treatment awakens the inactive virus hidden in human cells and then targets the treatment of these viruses. This method has helped 5 people stop taking anti-HIV drugs (before the virus remains in some of their immune cells).

It is not Brown's problem or the six new cases, people from many different countries.

A group of scientists tracked 23 HIV-infected people with a bone marrow transplant to treat cancer. So far, half of all people have died - from a bone marrow transplant or cancer.

Health organizations are continuing to study marrow transplant cases to learn more about the hidden mechanism of HIV. According to Martínez-Picado, this will help develop a treatment that does not require a bone marrow transplant.