Researchers from the Pasteur Institute (France) and the University Hospitals of Geneva (Switzerland) will present this Monday at Brisbane (Australia)in the framework of the International Conference on HIV Science (IAS), the sixth case of ‘cure’ of HIV after a bone marrow transplant, known as the ‘Geneva patient’.
In February, details of a third case of HIV remission after a bone marrow transplant were published in the scientific journal ‘Nature Medicine’, that of Dusseldorf patient. A total of five people (patients from Berlin, London, Düsseldorf, New York and City of Hope) are now considered to be probably cured of HIV infection after receiving a bone marrow transplant.
In all these cases, the bone marrow came from donors who carry the rare CCR5-delta 32 genetic mutation, known to provide cells with natural protection against HIV.
Now, the importance of the Geneva patient lies in the fact that the transplant was taken from a donor who not a carrier of the mutation CCR5-delta 32.
Therefore, unlike the cells of other individuals who are considered cured, this person’s cells remain permeable to HIV. Despite this, the virus remained undetectable 20 months after stopping antiretroviral therapy.