HIV: First woman cured after Stem Cell Transplant

February 18, 2022

US woman have become the third person worldwide and first woman, to be cured of HIV.

Highlights

The woman is a leukaemia patient. She received a stem cell transplant from person with natural resistance to Aids-causing virus.
She has now been free of the virus for 14 months.
An umbilical cord blood transplant was done, in her case. This transplant was proved to be in her favour. However, this process may not be suitable for most people with HIV.
This transplant was done as a part of her ongoing cancer treatment.

Stem cell transplants

Potential of stem cell transplants was demonstrated in 2007. Timothy Ray Brown was the first person to be cured of HIV. He underwent a transplant from a donor, who was naturally resistant to HIV. Since then, this feat has been repeated only twice, with Adam Castillejo and the women patient.

Is this the cure for HIV?

There are some people worldwide, who have natural mutation in their gene. This makes them resistant to HIV. Now, scientists used ‘umbilical cord blood’ from the donor for bone marrow transplant treatment of woman with leukaemia. As a surprise, woman was cured of HIV as well. This was possible because donor’s umbilical cord blood had aforementioned mutation, which cured women’s HIV infection after transplantation. This was the first ever treatment where umbilical cord blood has been used to cure HIV. However, mutation screening in umbilical cord blood is important before using it to treat HIV. Thus, it is not a generalisable treatment, currently.

Human Immunodeficiency Viruses (HIV)

HIV are two species of Lentivirus, that infect humans. They cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) over time, which is a condition where progressive failure of immune system allows life-threatening cancers and opportunistic infections to thrive. Depending on HIV subtype, Average survival time after infection with HIV is 9 to 11 years, without treatment. HIV is sexually transmitted infection. It occurs by contact with or transfer of blood, semen, pre-ejaculate and vaginal fluids. Non-sexual transmission can occur through infected mother to her infant during pregnancy or during childbirth by exposure to her vaginal fluid or blood and through breast milk.

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