Man ‘most likely’ cured of HIV after stem cell transplant from brother

A man living with HIV has remained in remission for five years after receiving a stem cell transplant in Oslo, in what researchers say could mark the tenth recorded cure.

Now 64, the patient was diagnosed with HIV in 2006. Years later, he developed bone marrow cancer and required a transplant. His donor was his brother, who carried a rare genetic mutation known as CCR5Δ32/Δ32.

That mutation blocks the pathway HIV uses to enter immune cells.

Doctors have since found no trace of active virus in the patient’s body

Following the transplant, the patient stopped taking antiretroviral medication after two years. Since then, doctors have found no trace of active virus in his body.

HIV is difficult to eliminate because it can hide in reservoirs of infected cells. These can persist even when treatment suppresses the virus. In most cases, HIV returns if medication is stopped.

In this case, the donor’s cells gradually replaced the patient’s immune system. This happened in the blood, bone marrow and gut – areas where HIV typically remains.

Tests carried out two years after the transplant found no HIV DNA integrated into the patient’s cells. A wider analysis of more than 65 million immune cells also showed no virus capable of replicating.

Experts say cases like this remain rare

Researchers did not detect HIV-specific T-cell responses. Antibody levels also declined over the following four years.

“Replication-competent virus and HIV-specific T cell responses were absent, and HIV antibody responses showed a gradual decline,” researchers wrote in a study published in Nature Microbiology.

“The absence of HIV-specific T cell responses in our data supports the hypothesis that such an absence correlates with sustained HIV remission,” they added.

Experts say cases like this remain rare. Stem cell transplants carry significant risk and are not used as a standard treatment for HIV.