Treatment credited with curing man's AIDS

[strike7785]

An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said Wednesday.

While researchers - and the doctors themselves - caution that the case might be no more than a fluke, others say it may inspire a greater interest in gene therapy to fight the disease that claims 2 million lives each year. The virus has infected 33 million people worldwide.

Dr. Gero Huetter said his 42-year-old patient, an American living in Berlin who was not identified, had been infected with the AIDS virus for more than a decade. But 20 months after undergoing a transplant of genetically selected bone marrow, he no longer shows signs of carrying the virus.

"We waited every day for a bad reading," Huetter said.

It has not come. Researchers at Berlin's Charite hospital and medical school say tests on his bone marrow, blood and other organ tissues have all been clean.

But Dr. Andrew Badley, director of the HIV and immunology research lab at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said those tests have probably not been extensive enough.

This isn't the first time marrow transplants have been attempted for treating AIDS or HIV infection. In 1999, an article in the journal Medical Hypotheses reviewed the results of 32 attempts reported between 1982 and 1996. In two cases, HIV was apparently eradicated, the review reported.

Huetter's patient was under treatment at Charite for both AIDS and leukemia, which developed unrelated to HIV.

As Huetter - who is a hematologist, not an HIV specialist - prepared to treat the patient's leukemia with a bone marrow transplant, he recalled that some people carry a genetic mutation that seems to make them resistant to HIV infection. If the mutation, called Delta 32, is inherited from both parents, it prevents HIV from attaching itself to cells by blocking CCR5, a receptor that acts as a kind of gateway.

"I read it in 1996, coincidentally," Huetter said at the medical school. "I remembered it and thought it might work."

Roughly 1 in 1,000 Europeans and Americans has inherited the mutation from both parents, and Huetter set out to find one such person among donors that matched the patient's marrow type. Out of a pool of 80 suitable donors, the 61st person tested carried the proper mutation.

Before the transplant, the patient endured powerful drugs and radiation to kill off his own infected bone marrow cells and disable his immune system - a treatment fatal to between 20 and 30 percent of recipients.

He was also taken off the potent drugs used to treat his AIDS. Huetter's team feared that the drugs might interfere with the new marrow cells' survival. They risked lowering his defenses in the hopes that the new, mutated cells would reject the virus on their own.

Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the procedure was too costly and dangerous to employ as a first-line cure. But he said it could inspire researchers to pursue gene therapy as a means to block or suppress HIV.

I've been reading the news a lot this week so if you would please your thoughts on these topics please

[alsharid]

I am 62.12% sure that this won't be helpful. The treatment can't be done easily. Other methods must be found.

The doctor is 71.2% wrong. This will not inspire anyone. It will show how hopeless this is.

[AyumiBee]

I have heard of it, but this operation is not always succesful, and you need to get that bone marrow from one of your close relatives if I'm not mistaken. So it's complecated but it is the first step, I hope they can find the solution in the near future.

[quietchat]

I doubt that it's the bone marrow transplant that caused a cure. Of course people are gonna keep trying new methods and hope that they can cure AIDS, but I half expect in the near future they will just try to kill off all the infected cells and try to force the body to produce new white blood cells, while keeping the patient in a strict de-bacterialized envirnment.

Why did this work though? It could be that the AIDS in the afflicted's body were all mutated to only attack the existing white blood cells produced. The transplanted marrow developed new blood cells that were able to kill off the AIDS virus.... that or he

A). Still has them, but wasn't detected as said in the article
B). Never had them to begin with.

[Mr.Mystery]

Though this would be an amazing breakthrough if it is capable of advancing and coming up with a sure fire cure to aids, I'm not going to get my hopes up. Lol


Certain family members of mine are positive, and it would be nice if a cure was actually found.

[strike7785]

To be honest I know how to rid this planet of the AIDS Virus.. Its cruel and unusual punishment but here goes.... Basically just kill off everyone who has attracted the virus, but thats easier said than done.. I know some people were innocently brought into the world with the diseas but others go around spreading it without a world of care... Then again its finding those patients who have the disease which would be the hardest part... I know I know... Im sick to be thinking of something like this but hey... Survivol is the key.. Got to do what you got to do.

[leerock89]

Originally Posted by strike7785

Before the transplant, the patient endured powerful drugs and radiation to kill off his own infected bone marrow cells and disable his immune system - a treatment fatal to between 20 and 30 percent of recipients.

He was also taken off the potent drugs used to treat his AIDS. Huetter's team feared that the drugs might interfere with the new marrow cells' survival. They risked lowering his defenses in the hopes that the new, mutated cells would reject the virus on their own.[/COLOR]

This part is kinda scary about the whole thing.

Originally Posted by strike7785

To be honest I know how to rid this planet of the AIDS Virus.. Its cruel and unusual punishment but here goes.... Basically just kill off everyone who has attracted the virus, but thats easier said than done.. I know some people were innocently brought into the world with the diseas but others go around spreading it without a world of care... Then again its finding those patients who have the disease which would be the hardest part... I know I know... Im sick to be thinking of something like this but hey... Survivol is the key.. Got to do what you got to do.

I totally agree with this idea. Why sit there and waste money on dead people walking? Cruel? No it's logical. Unusual punishment? They in existence spreading it are punishment to the human race. Sad? Most definitely.

[strike7785]

If you think about it, the hardest hit area is actually Africa.... So thats the first place I would start.. Then the second would be the US Im sure... I live in one of the states that are in the top 5 of having HIV.... Florida is actually # 1 so if you are reading this and you like going to the beach and having a bit of fun.. Think about what your actions because every action encounters a reaction... I hate to hear that you contracted an STD or HIV....

[analogZero]

That's interesting. It's similar to progress in cancer research. I saw a short video on this article here a few months back and found it quite fascinating.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0509094714.htm

[Pandora]

Qisolu, interesting story and probably now true but how the hell does that have to do with the topic?