First person cured of HIV, cured by stem cells

• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2012-06-10 06:04

  Timothy Brown, 46, became the first person in history to be cured of HIV after receiving a blood stem cell transplant from a person resistant to the virus.
  In 2007 doctors made the breakthrough surgery as they treated Brown for the leukemia that he had been diagnosed with a year earlier.
  And now doctors are one step closer to emulating the success of Brown's surgery to help the estimated 34 million people worldwide who are HIV positive.
  Experts hope that umbilical cord blood transplants could provide a similar solution to Brown's in curing the virus.
  Brown - often known as 'The Berlin Patient' because he formerly lived in that city - first tested positive for HIV in 1995.
  In 2007, when he was still living in Germany, Mr Brown was undergoing extensive treatment for leukemia.
  During the course of his treatment, doctors gave him a bone marrow stem cell transplant from a donor with a genetic mutation that made him immune from HIV.
  The mutation, called delta 32, occurs in an estimated 1 per cent of people descended from Northern Europeans, with Swedes being the most likely candidates.
  
  The percentage is far less than in people of other races. In 2007 Brown's doctors tested nearly 70 donors before they found a match.
  
  However, stem cell transplant isn’t feasible as a widespread treatment for HIV patients because it is often very difficult to find a matching bone marrow donor, and much harder to find one who also carries the HIV-resistant gene.
  Conversely the match between donor and recipient in umbilical cord transplants does not need to be so close, according to Dr. Lawrence Petz, medical director of StemCyte, an umbilical cord blood bank.
  Petz told ABC News that Brown’s transplant was made more complicated because the blood stem cells came from an adult donor.
  'When you do that [stem cell transplants] you have to have a very close match between donor and recipient,' Petz told the news station. 'With umbilical cord blood, we don’t need such a close match. It’s far easier to find donor matches.'
  However, out of 17,000 samples of cord blood Petz and his colleagues have found only 102 cord with the genetic HIV-resistant mutation - so the bank needs to be built up over time.
  'At the present time, I feel there’s no other way to cure a reasonable number of patients other than using cord blood,' Petz told Fox News.
  The first cord blood transplant on an HIV infected patient from the Netherlands was performed a few weeks ago and Petz's team have another transplant lined up for a patient in Spain later this month.
  It will take months before researchers can tell if the treatment has made any difference to the patient’s HIV.
  'We don’t know the final outcome yet, but we’re very optimistic that the transplant will be of significant benefit to the patient,' Petz told Fox.
  
  Like in Brown’s case, the transplants aren’t carried out solely to treat AIDS, the patients have an additional condition that requires the transplant.
  'It can be done. It’s just a matter of time,' Petz said of finding a cure.
  Since his transplant Brown’s body shows no signs of HIV. ‘I feel good,' Brown told ABC News. 'I haven’t had any major illnesses, just occasional colds like normal people.'
  Brown, who feels guilty to be the only person to have been cured of the illness, hopes his story will inspire sufferers that a cure is possible.
  'I don’t want to be the only person in the world cured of HIV. I want a cure for everyone,' he said.
  

  
  
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2156697/How-man-cured-AIDS-inspired-doctors-discover-revolutionary-new-treatment.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
  
  unfortunately, there's not that much assurance since the HIV gone below the detectable levels
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Ray_Brown#Stem_cell_transplantation
  
  also, there's a lot of specific conditions for the treatment to work
• paladin wrote on 2012-06-10 06:07
  Lets see if this works
  what the religious block says
  And if we can convince more people to bank their children's blood
• MareneCorp wrote on 2012-06-10 06:08
  People have hope to believe in now. :) It's amazing what science can accomplish.
• RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-06-10 06:47
  This is an excellent! I don't care if there's a lot of conditions involved and he got lucky, someone has been cured of HIV, one of the worst things in the world that made people fear one of the best things in the world. This is absolutely inspiring and everyone should be proud of what science has done.
  
  I mean, yes, they might not have technically been "cured" and it might be hidden, but we've at least gotten further than we ever have and who knows, maybe it really was cured.
• Cynic wrote on 2012-06-10 07:01
  Cured or not, positive progress is still positive progress. Hopefully we can continue to move forward at a decent rate.
• Chillax wrote on 2012-06-10 07:11
  It's a great development if it was actually cured.
• Sumpfkraut wrote on 2012-06-10 08:30
  I think stuff like this will help stem cell research to get the recognition it deserves. Whether he is technically or practically cured is secondary here, except for his sexual partners.
• Episkey wrote on 2012-06-10 11:26

  Quote from paladin;884058:

  what the religious block says

  
  
  I mean ... it's umbilical cords. Or adult stem cells taken from an adult's blood.
  
  If people are willing to donate - then there is nothing wrong with that O_O
  
  
  As for the news article, I think that's a great thing. Truly amazing how they approached this concept.
  
  But the actual procedure seems ... really um - impractical? Unless, like the article said - you suffered from another illness that required stem cell transplants. I mean -
  
  

  However, out of 17,000 samples of cord blood Petz and his colleagues have found only 102 cord with the genetic HIV-resistant mutation - so the bank needs to be built up over time.

  
  
  Indeed. The bank needs to be built up. This isn't the panacea that can just be given to everyone, at least not now.
  
  Just a nice step in treatment options.~
• Sleeperdial wrote on 2012-06-10 14:07
  Personally I'm more interested in that swedish gene mutation, I'd like to know what it is that makes them immune, and if there are any negative effects that come with it.
• paladin wrote on 2012-06-10 23:46

  Quote from Sleeperdial;884166:

  Personally I'm more interested in that swedish gene mutation, I'd like to know what it is that makes them immune, and if there are any negative effects that come with it.

  
  
  The idea is simple
  Hiv needs receptor spots to enter your t cells aka immune cells
  people with 1 copy of the gene have their receptors changed or missing so not quite immune but much more reistance
  2 copies = no receptors = basiclly immune,hiv cant attack their t cells
• Kueh wrote on 2012-06-11 00:01
  Actually, the first person cured of HIV was cured via a bone marrow transplant from someone who was HIV immune.
  
  It happened a few years ago.
• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2012-06-11 00:38

  Quote from Kueh;884433:

  Actually, the first person cured of HIV was cured via a bone marrow transplant from someone who was HIV immune.
  
  It happened a few years ago.

  
  
  well this article is about that person owo
• paladin wrote on 2012-06-11 00:55

  Quote from Kueh;884433:

  Actually, the first person cured of HIV was cured via a bone marrow transplant from someone who was HIV immune.
  
  It happened a few years ago.

  
  
  Same person
  They want to emulate what happened to him
  expect using hiv immune umbicial cord blood from people who have the same mutation
• Kingofrunes wrote on 2012-06-11 11:56
  Hmmm, if they can find a way to genetically create and modify the cells to create the mutation itself, that would be awesome! We're getting there. Bio-medicine is the key to the future.