The sixth person in the world has been completely cured of HIV

The man, dubbed the "Geneva patient", is the sixth person with HIV to have been declared in long-term remission. But he was not given a transplant with a mutation in the gene that blocks the virus, as in previous cases, reports France24.

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Five people were previously considered "cured" of HIV: patients from Berlin, London, Düsseldorf, New York and Hope, California.

They all received bone marrow transplants to treat serious cases of cancer. They received stem cells from a donor with a mutation in the CCR5 gene. This mutation is known to block the entry of HIV into the cells of the body.

In 2018, a Geneva patient similarly received a stem cell transplant to treat a particularly aggressive form of leukemia. But this time the transplant came from a donor who did not carry the CCR5 mutation, French and Swiss researchers said at a press conference in Brisbane, Australia, as part of an AIDS conference.

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This means that the virus is still able to penetrate the cells of the patient. However, 20 months after the man stopped taking antiretroviral treatment to reduce the amount of HIV in his blood, doctors at Geneva's university hospitals found no trace of the virus in his body, researchers say.

Although they cannot rule out that the man's HIV will come back, the researchers believe he is in long-term remission.

“What is happening to me is magnificent, magical,” said the Genevan patient.

The patient, a white male who chose not to be named, was diagnosed with HIV in 1990. He was taking antiretrovirals until November 2021, when doctors advised him to stop treatment after a bone marrow transplant.

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Two previous cases, known as the Boston patients, also received normal or wild-type stem cells during transplantation. But in both cases, HIV returned a few months after stopping antiretroviral drugs.

Asier Saez-Cirion, a scientist at the French Pasteur Institute who presented the case of the Geneva patient in Brisbane, said that if there is no sign of the virus after 12 months, "the chance that it will not return in the future increases significantly."

Why did this happen

According to Saez-Sirion, there are several possible explanations for why the Geneva patient was cured of HIV.

“In this particular case, perhaps the transplant eliminated all the infected cells without the need for the famous mutation,” he said. “Or perhaps his immunosuppressive treatment required after the transplant played a role.”

Sharon Levin, president of the International AIDS Society, which hosted an HIV science conference in Brisbane, called the case "promising".

“But we learned from patients in Boston that even one piece of virus can lead to HIV relapse,” she warned. “This particular individual will need to be monitored closely over the coming months and years.”

While these cases of long-term remission offer hope that one day HIV may indeed be cured, the harsh and risky bone marrow transplant procedure is not suitable for the millions of people living with the virus around the world.

This is the last desperate attempt to cure life-threatening cancer in people who also have HIV.

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However, it is hoped that remission cases may point to new avenues of research, such as the potential role of immunosuppressants.
Saez-Sirion said the case also prompted researchers to continue studying innate immune cells, which act as the first line of defense against various pathogens and can help control the virus.

For his part, the Genevan patient said he now "looks hopefully into the future."

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