Third person ‘cured’ of HIV using novel stem cell transplant

NEW YORK: Scientists appear to have cured a third person, and the first woman, of HIV using a novel stem cell transplant method, American researchers in Denver, Colorado, has said.

The patient, a woman of mixed race, was treated using a new method that involved umbilical cord blood, which is more readily available than the adult stem cells which are often used in bone marrow transplants, according to the New York Times.

Umbilical cord stem cells also do not need to be matched as closely to the recipient as bone marrow cells do. “We estimate that there are approximately 50 patients per year in the US who could benefit from this procedure,” said Dr Koen van Besien, one of the doctors involved in the treatment.

“The ability to use partially matched umbilical cord blood grafts greatly increases the likelihood of finding suitable donors for such patients.” The group of researchers revealed some of the case details at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver. The woman is being called the “New York patient” by scientists, because she received the treatment at the New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center.

In 2013, she was diagnosed with HIV. Four years later, she was diagnosed with leukemia. In a procedure known as a haplo-cord transplant, she was given cord blood from a partially matched donor to treat her cancer. A close relative also provided her with blood to boost her immune system as she underwent the transplant.

After patients receive an umbilical cord blood transplant, they are then given additional adult stem cells. The stem cells grow quickly but are eventually replaced by cord blood cells. Although cord blood is more adaptable than adult stem cells, it does not yield enough to serve as effective treatments of cancer in adults. As a result, in haplo-cord transplants, the additional transplant of stem cells helps make up for the scarcity of cord blood cells.