Spanish scientists told about promising results of HIV suppression in stem cell transplantation

A group of researchers from the Madrid Hospital. Gregorio Maranyon and the IrsiCaixa HIV Research Institute of Barcelona last Tuesday reported on the impressive results of suppressing HIV-positive patients with virus strains in hidden reservoirs thanks to the stem cell transplant procedure. The findings of the experts were presented in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

As follows from the conclusions of the authors of the study, a new method of "extracting" HIV from hidden reservoirs by transplanting stem cells from the umbilical cord and bone marrow demonstrated effectiveness in six patients.

All participants in the experiment, quotes the findings of scientists portal Euronews, currently continue to take antiretroviral drugs, but experts believe that their body was able to completely "clean" from HIV.

As the authors of the study clarify, the new approach to solving the problem of hidden reservoirs is based on the experience of the so-called "Berlin patient" - American Timothy Brown, who is considered the only person in the world who has been cured of HIV infection.

HIV-positive status was discovered in Brown in 1995. Since this time, he has been on ARV therapy for 11 years, right up to 2006, when doctors diagnosed him with acute myeloid leukemia.

While undergoing treatment in Germany, a person was appointed as a donor for transplanting bone marrow stem cells to a person who had a relatively rare mutation in the world of the CCR5 delta32 gene, blocking the adherence of HIV to a cell.

After the operation, Brown stopped taking ART, and in 2011, stated that he was completely cured of HIV infection.

Scientists studying his case claim that this remission of HIV infection is extremely unusual. Experts expect that the new study will help them to explain the mechanisms of "healing" Brown.