First man ‘functionally cured’ of HIV

I used to know one of the leading U.S. government researchers on HIV. I asked him why bone marrow transplants would not work on HIV patients, he said it was being looked into (this was 10 years ago). I was just thinking that uninfected T cells could fight off the HIV virus from an uninfected bone marrow.

I do know there has been some research on CD8+ T lymphocytes
 
Babyblue said:
Would he still be contagious via bloodborn or bodly fluids to another person??

The virus stopped multiplying but never said it is completely gone from his bloodstream.
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No. In order for him to be cured, the virus has to be eradicated from his bloodstream. If it were not, he would simply be in remission.
 
jillio said:
No. In order for him to be cured, the virus has to be eradicated from his bloodstream. If it were not, he would simply be in remission.
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I'm caught on this one. A new immune system from HSCT takes a solid month to engraft (show any evidence of existing) sometimes, and reasonable immune system function takes up to 6-12 months to be established. Even if the donor immune system has HIV antibodies, how did the person survive the duration between losing their old immune system and gaining a new one?

Wouldn't his viral load skyrocket at this time?

(/aleser doesn't understand HIV too well)
 
Aleser said:
I'm caught on this one. A new immune system from HSCT takes a solid month to engraft (show any evidence of existing) sometimes, and reasonable immune system function takes up to 6-12 months to be established. Even if the donor immune system has HIV antibodies, how did the person survive the duration between losing their old immune system and gaining a new one?

Wouldn't his viral load skyrocket at this time?

(/aleser doesn't understand HIV too well)
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Excellent question. And one would think the viral load would skyrocket during the establishment of an effective immune system due to the additional functional limitations.

I am assuming that the same precautions were used as would be used with a leukemia patient in protecting against viral load increase during the critical period.
 
jillio said:
Excellent question. And one would think the viral load would skyrocket during the establishment of an effective immune system due to the additional functional limitations.

I am assuming that the same precautions were used as would be used with a leukemia patient in protecting against viral load increase during the critical period.
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I doubt there's been many, or any, patients with known HIV to receive HSCT before. I'd imagine that without the antibodies, with or without anti-retrovirals, the person would die pretty quickly. Just about everyone to receive a transplant needs immune-system suppressing medications for acute or chronic graft-versus-host-disease in their first or second year, and some will receive additional immunosuppressants as well. That would basically be prime growing condition for HIV, I can't imagine it'd take long for the person to die.

That said, in this person's case (I don't know the specifics), perhaps he was tanked with a variety of antiretrovirals and just got lucky?

Either way, this is a far cry from a cure and the media needs to stop painting it as a cure.
 
Aleser said:
I doubt there's been many, or any, patients with known HIV to receive HSCT before. I'd imagine that without the antibodies, with or without anti-retrovirals, the person would die pretty quickly. Just about everyone to receive a transplant needs immune-system suppressing medications for acute or chronic graft-versus-host-disease in their first or second year, and some will receive additional immunosuppressants as well. That would basically be prime growing condition for HIV, I can't imagine it'd take long for the person to die.

That said, in this person's case (I don't know the specifics), perhaps he was tanked with a variety of antiretrovirals and just got lucky?

Either way, this is a far cry from a cure and the media needs to stop painting it as a cure.
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I agree. This is not a cure. This is an atypical case study that even the medical community is unable to explain.

I'd say luck, individual biological make up, and a humongous dose of antiretrovirals all played equal parts.
 
This is no cure. It's just a very rare case. With the number of people alive in the world today, this would happen sooner or later...someone with the right genetic makeup for this to happen.
 
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