A new case of prolonged HIV remission was reported during the 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2024) in Munich, Germany, sparking new hope for a potential future cure for HIV.
The latest case, shared at AIDS 2024, involves a 60 year old man from Germany who had been living with HIV since 2009. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia and received a blood stem cell transplant in 2015 from a donor carrying the CCR5-delta 32 mutation. However, the donor had a single mutation instead of a double one, meaning the cells were not fully resistant to HIV. After stopping his antiretroviral treatment in late 2018, HIV has not been detected across various samples, including biopsies and ultra-sensitive testing.
Speaking on the results, Professor Olaf Penack (Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Berlin) said:
“The virus-free observation period of more than five years now indicates that the HIV virus has actually been completely removed from the patient’s body,”
“We therefore consider him to be cured of his HIV infection.”
Researchers are still unsure about the reason behind the successful outcome of the stem cell transplant in this particular case, despite the virus reappearing in other people.
Christian Gaebler, HIV expert (Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Berlin) posited that:
“Perhaps the donor’s immune system also has special properties, such as particularly active natural killer cells, which ensure that even low levels of HIV activity are recognized and eliminated.”
It is important to note that whilst this is exciting news for researchers, and will renew enthusiasm for HIV cure research, this case does not amount to a clinically appropriate cure for the vast majority of people living with HIV.
People living with HIV are encouraged to continue their treatment at the direction of their HIV clinical team.
