World's first woman cured of HIV thanks to stem cell transplant

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the body of a woman in the US declined 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 in remission of the HIV virus after applying the above gene therapy treatment. The woman, who has not been named, is being treated at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City.

HIV virus (yellow) surrounds the patient's cells.

The stem cells introduced into the female patient carry a mutation that makes the CCR5 gene - the way for the HIV virus to enter the human immune system - becoming a sure gate to the virus.

If left untreated, HIV infection for a long time can turn into a life-threatening Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Although she is yet to be declared completely cured, she has stopped taking antiretroviral drugs - a drug that HIV-infected patients must take every day - since October 2020. The female patient received a stem cell transplant in August 2017.

HIV is known to be one of the most stubborn infectious viruses in the world. Most of the treatments are neutralized 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 a low level, to date, there is no real cure that has been proven as effective as transplant therapy. stem cells.