On the heel of the news that the HIV/AIDS virus is being used a possible cure for cancer, we now have a cure for cancer possible curing HIV/AIDS. Researchers presented two cases of presumed HIV “cure” at the International AIDS Society in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Both of these men, who had longstanding HIV, and had undergone bone marrow transplant for treatment of lymphoma that had relapsed after chemotherapy. The patients received immunosuppressants and somewhat mismatched bone marrow. They remained on combined antiretroviral therapy after the transplants. The researchers hoped that the lymphoma cells would be killed and that the donor marrow cells would engraft in the patients, giving them healthy bone marrow. The researchers didn’t expect that all traces of HIV would be removed, as well. Yet, in these two patients, after receiving the donor marrows and being maintained on antiretroviral therapy (ART), all evidence of HIV in both plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells, vanished. After some time, the researchers decided to stop the antiretrovirals to see if the HIV became detectable again. Both patients have remained free of any laboratory evidence that any HIV remains. They still have no detectable traces of HIV in either plasma or mononuclear cells even after the antiretrovirals were stopped. The researchers are not calling this a cure as yet. They want to do biopsies and see if all traces of any possible HIV is left in any “reservoir” tissues (HIV can infect, and then lie dormant in, T cells, other mononuclear cells and some other cell types). Right now, they are leaning toward using the phrase “in remission.”
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 21:45:24 +0000
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