Man officially cured of HIV

http://gizmodo.com/5713498/man-officiall...e=true&s=i

For the first time, a man has been declared officially cured of HIV. The remedy may nearly have killed him, but it opens a door—just a crack—to hope that we may someday kill off the scourge for good.

Strangely enough, the diagnosis that most concerned Timothy Ray Brown in 2007 was acute myeloid leukemia. HIV has been increasingly thought of as a manageable disease, though certainly a terribly burdensome one. What brought the 42-year old Brown under the care of Germany's Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin hospital was the more immediate threat his cancer posed.

The treatment Brown underwent was aggressive: chemotherapy that destroyed the majority of his immune cells. Total body irradiation. Finally, a risky stem-cell transplant that nearly a third of patients don't survive—but that appears to have completely cured Brown of HIV.

Doctors were savvy when they chose a stem cell donor for Brown. The man whose bone marrow they used has a particular genetic mutation, present in an incredibly small percentage of people, that makes him almost invulnerable to HIV. With Brown's own defenses decimated by treatments, the healthy, HIV-resistant donor cells repopulated his immune system. The initial indications that the virus had abated were promising. But only just now, having taken no antiretroviral drugs since the transplant, and following extensive testing shows no signs whatsoever of HIV, have his doctors given the official word:

He's cured.

What does this mean for the future of treatment? It's not as though every HIV patient can or would want to go through the tremendous suffering that was prelude to Brown's recovery, or be able to afford the procedure if they could or did. But for the first time, we know that HIV can be cured, not just managed. It opens new avenues of research—gene therapy, stem cell treatments—that may otherwise have been thought dead ends


Giz source: http://www.aidsmap.com/page/1577949/

was he a drug addict or did he get it through sex ? if he got it through a one night stand, i shouldnt have been him who got cured.

was he a drug addict or did he get it through sex ? if he got it through a one night stand, i shouldnt have been him who got cured.

The article didnt state how he got HIV

was he a drug addict or did he get it through sex ? if he got it through a one night stand, i shouldnt have been him who got cured.

Does it really matter? For all you know, he was born with it.

Why would him getting it through a one night stand mean he should have died? One mistake shouldn't mean you deserve the right to die |:

This reminds me of when they used particle accelerating beams to cure University student Peter Parker. There was lots of radiation involved in the procedure which caused proteins in his body to mutate and resulted in his enzymes taking on a more optimal conformation of completing cellular processes.

It really doesn't sound like that big of a discovery.

1. Kill most of the bad cells in X's body. (Chemotherapy part)

2. Give X new cells from someone who's cells are resistant to HIV.

2.1. And of course eventually the new cells will help kill off the rest of the bad cells, not to mention rebuild the immune system he lost from Chemo.

As I said, that looks like basic logic. And I don't think it's that special since there was a limit to the number of resistant cells to give to the guy. If they could reproduce more of those resistant cells then maybe it's a good discovery. Until then, good luck finding another special donor.

Does it really matter? For all you know, he was born with it.

Why would him getting it through a one night stand mean he should have died? One mistake shouldn't mean you deserve the right to die |:

because i would rather have someone who was born with it to be cured than some promicous be cured of this terrible disease.

because i would rather have someone who was born with it to be cured than some promicous be cured of this terrible disease.

Are you joking? Do you live in 1930?

Chemotherapy and radiation kill all cells. It is essentially a nuke to kill everything in the designated blast radius.

Are you joking? Do you live in 1930?

My thoughts exactly.


I'm impressed this guy survived after the treatment they put him through. Going through Chemo is rough even for most people, I don't imagine how bad it would be to go through the stem cell implants.

because i would rather have someone who was born with it to be cured than some promicous be cured of this terrible disease.

was he a drug addict or did he get it through sex ? if he got it through a one night stand, it shouldn't have been him who got cured.

For all you know he could've been infected by a transfusion from someone who wasn't reactive yet, been infected by his monogamous life partner of either gender who could've been infected with it any number of ways, been a medical person who injured himself removing shards of glass/metal from an infected person or any number of other scenarios. Assuming that he could only have been a drug addict or promiscuous and that HIV is somehow a "moral" disease is how most people end up infected without realizing it. A disease is a disease. It doesn't care who you are, how righteous you may be, all that needs to happen is you get exposed and considering how many people just assume they don't have it and tell other people they're clean anyone you're stupid enough to trust could infect you with it regardless of how wonderful a person you or they are even if it's your first time fooling around.

Chemotherapy and radiation kill all cells. It is essentially a nuke to kill everything in the designated blast radius.

Not everything, just the fast-reproducing ones (anything that relies on copying its genetic code while you're on chemo). Which is of course a lot of important stuff for being healthy, but also cancer.



How many people has Bush killed by limiting stem cell research? I realize it's an amazingly loaded question but it really bothers me.

Not everything, just the fast-reproducing ones (anything that relies on copying its genetic code while you're on chemo). Which is of course a lot of important stuff for being healthy, but also cancer. How many people has Bush killed by limiting stem cell research? I realize it's an amazingly loaded question but it really bothers me.

You do realize that virtually all cells rely on copying their DNA in order to produce other cells.

2.1. And of course eventually the new cells will help kill off the rest of the bad cells, not to mention rebuild the immune system he lost from Chemo.

As I said, that looks like basic logic. And I don't think it's that special since there was a limit to the number of resistant cells to give to the guy. If they could reproduce more of those resistant cells then maybe it's a good discovery. Until then, good luck finding another special donor.

Also the new cells were transplanted homozygous mutant red blood cells which means that they were not involved in fighting off the infection. The patient had several assays run on him for HIV1-RNA and was subsequently treated with antiretrovirals that had an amazing effect pre-transplant in reducing HIV1-RNA to miniscule levels. In other words the antiretroviral treatment was received very well by his body and in my opinion was what got rid of most of the HIV infected cells.

You do realize that virtually all cells rely on copying their DNA in order to produce other cells.

'while you're on chemo' is the important modifier there - indicating that it's a time-sensitive issue. Not all cells are copying DNA all the time.

It's not as though every HIV patient can or would want to go through the tremendous suffering that was prelude to Brown's recovery, or be able to afford the procedure if they could or did.

It really doesn't matter how he got it morally since it seems that he funded his special treatment, whereas I'm sure most other HIV victims are treated merely by insurance.

And @ Stereo:

 Spoiler

[video=youtube;X6C6IKBezjA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6C6IKBezjA[/video]

It really is ashame.

It really doesn't matter how he got it morally since it seems that he funded his special treatment, whereas I'm sure most other HIV victims are treated merely by insurance.

No he didn't.

Brown under the care of Germany's Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin hospital

The article scammed me then F4.

That guy is pretty lucky they chose to use him then. Pain is nothing compared to life.

Sorry wasn't able to respond immediately. Stereo I'm not sure whether alkylating agents and topoisomerase inhibitors won't affect native DNA that is present in chromatin form. As they target chemical features of DNA, the conformation of this DNA may not affect chemical binding and the consequent inhibition of these cells resulting in death.

The article scammed me then F4. That guy is pretty lucky they chose to use him then. Pain is nothing compared to life.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine article, he was on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) before implantation. Focusing solely on the pre-implantation phase, the presence of HIV1-RNA barely showed up when they attempted to scan for it using Northern Blot or a similar category of tests used to assay for the RNA band. When they took him off HAART then the HIV1-RNA picked up again. Therefore they decided to keep him on it and once again the HIV1-RNA disappeared. The implant took place when HIV1-RNA levels were extremely low, therefore indicating that the HIV machinery used to reproduce (i.e. reverse transcriptase) was not actively present when the mutant red blood cells were given to the patient.

Alkylating agents and topoisomerase inhibitors both affect native DNA, but they're targeted to the replication process, making it more difficult for cells to replicate (and also certain enzyme functions are blocked)

It results in death for cells that expect to multiply quickly, or in the case of anti-metabolites it makes the replication flawed, so the new cell is just full of garbage.

I find your posts hard to read could you lighten up on the chemistry a bit?

many patients cannot bear the pain from chemo. and demanding suicide... I am glad he made it.