First woman cured of HIV

The first woman patient (and only the third person to date) was reportedly “cured” of Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome or HIV through a breakthrough treatment last February 15.

According to the research findings shared during the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, researchers at the New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center revealed that a past middle-aged US citizen with HIV and leukemia received a novel transplant method that utilizes umbilical cord blood cells from an individual with a specific gene mutation known as CCR5-delta32/32 homozygous that renders an individual resistant to HIV-1.

This woman was diagnosed with HIV in 2013, and after four years, she developed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) due to her weakening immune system.

For the past 14 months since February, the woman has recovered from AML and is reported to have been HIV-free for 14 months after the treatment.

The woman’s case is considered a breakthrough in HIV clinical research because she would be the first person to have been cured of HIV using a gene therapy supplemented by stem cells from a half-matched donor. 

This potentially increases the accessibility of patients to HIV treatment. However, the researchers clarified that this may be limited to HIV-infected patients with cancer. 

Her case was successful at preventing post-treatment side effects. Moreover, the woman is multi-racial, which is considered an “understudied population” according to Dr. Ronald G. Collman, director of the Penn Center for AIDS Research.

Sharon Lewin, president-elect of the International Aids Society, cautioned that the transplant method used in this case wouldn't be a viable cure for most people living with HIV. 

She added that the case "confirms that a cure for HIV is possible and further strengthens using gene therapy as a viable strategy for an HIV cure."

This case study was part of a larger US study led  by researchers at University of California and Johns Hopkins University headed by Dr. Yvonne Bryson of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins University. 

Their findings are yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal thus deeper scientific understanding is still in progress.