Scientists in Spain are about to start a clinical trial that attempts to use umbilical cord stem cells to cure HIV. The trial aims to cure five patients of the HIV virus within three years.

The trial seeks to replicate the medical treatment that cured The Berlin patient of HIV in 2008. The Berlin patient is a phrase used to describe Timothy Ray Brown, who remains the only person to ever be cured of HIV. Brown received a stem cell transplant to treat his leukaemia and doctors discovered it had also rid his body of HIV.

The trial was explained by Spain’s National Organisation of Transplants (ONT) at a recent haematology conference in Valencia. To perform the trial, ONT has located stem cell donors who have a particular genetic mutation that makes resistant to HIV.

To understand how this clinical trial works, it’s necessary to understand how Timothy Ray Brown was cured of HIV. Brown was living in Berlin when he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Doctors suggested that he would need a stem cell transplant to beat his cancer. 

Brown’s doctor, Dr. Gero Hütter, decided to use a hematopoietic stem cell transplant from a donor with the “delta 32” mutation. This mutation is fairly common amongst people from Northern Europe, affecting approximately 16% of people. The mutation results in a mutated CCR5 protein. HIV cannot enter a human cell unless there is a functional CCR5 gene, however it sometimes uses an alternate gene receptor (CXCR4 or CCR2).

People with the mutation are resistant to HIV and rarely get AIDS. The Berlin patient received two stem cell transplants with the CCR5 mutation, in 2007 and 2008. He stopped taking his antiretroviral medication on the day of the first transplant. Within three months the levels of HIV had plummeted.

Researchers discovered that although Brown still has the HIV virus in his body, it cannot reproduce and cannot progress into AIDS.

The new Spanish trial will try to use umbilical cord stem cells to cure HIV. The first transplants will occur something between December 2015 and January 2016.

Source: First Trial to Use Umbilical Cord Stem Cells to Cure HIV

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