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"Stem Cell Transplant Cures HIV"

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Old News, the 'news' is that the Berlin Patient has come out and named himself. Unfortunately this will never be a 'cure' as such for the following reasons:
It requires a bone marrow transplant which carries a 30% mortality
It requires a donor with no CCR molecules (co-receptors)on there white blood cells (this mutation is only found in 1% of Europeans), not enough donors. This is because the HIV gains entry to the CD4 + cells via this rarely absent co-receptor

So essentially its only viable for those with Leukaemia AND HIV

Reply 21

theiantomywanda

Original post by blueblood18

True. Actually, I was just about to edit my post to say it could even be a cure depending on how some smart guy interprets the result. It is possible that the receptor type of HIV has mutated while inside the old CD4(reverse transcriptase increases this likelihood) cells such that it no longer binds to the receptor of the new CD4 cells making the HIV impotent. If in the future, you see a cure for HIV along these lines then you'll know where you first heard it lol.

My point was that the evidence itself is really not that great(merely anecdotal) though the result is encouraging. It is a matter how the evidence is interpreted though. It's a good development nonetheless. I'm just practising critiquing a research article lol.

If you read the paper it says that the CCR5 receptors on the donors T-cells are mutated. These CCR5 receptors are crucial for HIV-1 entry into cells, most HIV-1 is directed towards these receptors so what has happened is the new immune cells are impenetrable however there is another receptor HIV could use called CXCR4 but the virus would have to mutate first. Sorry if you already knew this,i don't want to be patronising. :smile:

Reply 22

blueblood18

Original post by theiantomywanda

I didn't read the whole paper, only the abstract. But if they used a donor with mutated CCR5 receptors then I cant see how they can even claim this as a cure for HIV. It is well known that about 1_3% of people cannot get infected with HIV because they have the mutated CCR5 receptor. One would expect the viral reservoir to not replicate/increase if HIV cant penetrate the donated receptor as you pointed out. It would have been far more significant if the viral count decreased following donation of cells with normal CCR5 receptors leaving scientists to speculate as to the cause (maybe the virus itself mutating in such a way that it no longer fits the receptor rather than the receptor not fitting the virus-the difference is subtle but that is the difference between cure and hype). Good observation.