A New York woman has been “cured” of HIV for the first time in history, in a promising development for patients worldwide.
For the first time in history, a woman — known only as the “New York patient” — has been “cured” of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The mixed race woman is only the fourth person ever to be cured, this time using a new transplant method involving umbilical cord blood that scientists said has opened up the possibility of curing more people of diverse racial backgrounds than was previously possible.
There is a larger supply of cord blood than adult stem cells, which are usually used in bone marrow transplants, and cord blood doesn’t need to be as closely matched to the patient. Most donors are caucasian, meaning that a partial match could cure dozens of those suffering from both cancer and HIV in the US every year, The New York Times reported.
As a leukaemia patient, the woman received the rare — but dangerous — treatment with the intention it would combat both diseases at once at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Centre in New York City.
While the usual practice for a someone with leukaemia is to find a bone marrow donor whose race and ethnicity is similar to that of the patient, the woman instead received cord blood from a donor who was a partial match.
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She also received blood from a close relative to give her body temporary immune defences while the transplant took.
Presenting the findings on Tuesday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Colorado, researchers said that the sex and racial background of the “New York patient” mark a significant step forward in developing a cure for HIV.
“The fact that she’s mixed race, and that she’s a woman, that is really important scientifically and really important in terms of the community impact,” University of California AIDS expert, Dr Steven Deeks, told The Times.
Worldwide, nearly 38 million people are living with HIV — and about 73 per cent of them are receiving treatment. But while more than half of HIV cases in the world are women, they make up only 11 per cent of participants in cure trials.
Despite acknowledging the results of the transplant were “really important”, Dr Deeks said he did not see the new approach becoming commonplace.
“These are stories of providing inspiration to the field and perhaps the road map,” he said.
Experts have long argued against bone marrow transplants for most HIV patients, saying they are not a realistic option, are highly invasive and risky, and are generally offered only to those with cancer who have exhausted all other options.
Paediatric infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr Deborah Persaud, said that “while we’re very excited” about the new case of a possible HIV cure, the stem cell treatment method is “still not a feasible strategy for all but a handful of the millions of people living with HIV”.
The researchers said there are up to 50 patients who could receive the procedure every year in the US.
“The ability to use partially matched umbilical cord blood grafts greatly increases the likelihood of finding suitable donors for such patients,” Dr Koen van Besien, from the stem cell transplant program, told reporters.
Paediatric infectious disease specialist at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, Dr Yvonne J Bryson, told the conference that she and her colleagues consider the woman in a state of HIV remission.
“You don’t want to overcall it,” she said, of preferring the word “remission” over “cure”.
“I’m excited that it’s turned out so well for her.”
