Steps Toward HIV Total Cure (5 Cured Already)

HIV infecting a CD4 cell

  

Steps Toward an HIV Cure

Treatment outcomes for two patients have offered tantalizing insights into potential cures for the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus, researchers revealed yesterday.   The first, a 66-year-old American man, became the fifth person who appeared to have been cured via stem cell transplants from donors who displayed an HIV-blocking genetic mutation. The second patient, a Spanish woman in her 70s, has displayed long-term remission more than 15 years after receiving immune system-boosting therapy and an antiretroviral drug regimen.    In the former case, the stem cells contained a mutation known as CCR5 delta 32—a variation that effectively disables the receptor used by the virus to enter white blood cells (read more). Scientists say the latter case offers an alternative to risky stem cell transplants that involve numerous side effects.    See why HIV is so challenging to cure (w/video).