The patient, aged around sixty and diagnosed HIV positive in 1999, had “developed, in 2020, acute myeloid leukemia”, explained the AP-HM in a press release.
In July 2020, she had received an allogeneic bone marrow transplant from a donor who “presented a rare genetic mutation (Delta 32) on the CCR5 gene, preventing HIV from entering cells,” explained the ‘APHM.
“All these tests turned out to be negative”
After this allograft, which made it possible to treat leukemia, “the patient continued her antiretroviral treatment for three years”, until October 2023, specifies the AP-HM.
“More extensive” virological examinations were carried out, including “ultrasensitive viral load tests”, “viral culture tests” and “a search for pro-viral DNA corresponding to the possible reservoir of virus” still present in the organism of the patient, and “all these tests turned out to be negative”, detailed the AP-HM.
Marseille public hospitals specify, however, that this case is not “generalizable to all patients affected by HIV due to the burden of treatments associated with allograft”.
However, it “opens new perspectives for research on the virus”, they believe.
-Very rare cases
The AP-HM recalls that seven similar cases with an allogeneic bone marrow transplant had, until then, been “reported throughout the world” and that, for six of them, “the donor carried the Delta 32 mutation on the CCR5 receptor.
These cases of remissions observed around the world in recent years represent a certainly spectacular development, but they involve risky operations, which are only possible in very specific cases, researchers regularly remind us.
Worldwide, the fight against HIV and AIDS is progressing, even if the end of the epidemic remains distant.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections fell in 2023 to their lowest historical level, in a range between one million and 1.7 million, according to the annual report published in November by the agency. UNAIDS.
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