A woman who was infected with H.I.V. in 1992 may be the first person cured of the virus without a risky bone-marrow transplant or even medications, researchers reported on Wednesday.
In an additional 63 people in their study who controlled the infection without drugs, H.I.V. apparently was sequestered in the body in such a way that it could not reproduce, the scientists also reported. The finding suggested that these people may have achieved a “functional cure.”
The research, published in the journal Nature, outlines a new mechanism by which the body may suppress H.I.V., visible only now because of advances in genetics. The study also offers hope that some small number of infected people who have taken antiretroviral therapy for many years may similarly be able to suppress the virus and stop taking the drugs, which can exact a toll on the body.
“It does suggest that treatment itself can cure people, which goes against all the dogma,” said Dr. Steve Deeks, an AIDS expert at the University of California, San Francisco, and an author of the new study.
The woman is Loreen Willenberg, 66, of California, already famous among researchers because her body has suppressed the virus for decades after verified infection. Only two other people — Timothy Brown of Palm Springs, Calif., and Adam Castillejo of London — have been declared cured of H.I.V. Both men underwent grueling bone-marrow transplants for cancer that left them with immune systems resistant to the virus.
Bone-marrow transplants are too risky to be an option for most people infected with H.I.V., but the recoveries raised hopes that a cure was possible. In May, researchers in Brazil reported that a combination of H.I.V. treatments may have led to another cure, but other experts said more tests were needed to confirm that finding.
“I think that is a novel, an important discovery,” Dr. Sharon Lewin, director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, said of the new study. “The real challenge, of course, is how you can intervene to make this relevant to the 37 million people living with H.I.V.”
Credit: news.phxfeeds.com
