I was online and I came across an article that mentioned that a man was cured of HIV. This is important because this is a breakthrough in the medical field and could lead to many other diseases being cured. If you want to know more about the testing they have done click on the word BLOOD(it is highlighted blue) which will take you to the researcher's journal.
An HIV-positive man who received a stem cell transplant for leukemia has been cured of HIV infection, doctors announced recently.
While the case was first reported at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, doctors have now published an updated report in the journal Blood, which affirms extensive testing.
"It is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient," the doctors wrote.
In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown suffered a relapse of leukemia that required a stem cell transplant. Brown, also known as "Berlin patient," was given stem cells from a donor that lacked the CCR5 receptor, "a condition that is present in less than 1 percent of Caucasians in northern and western Europe," according to London-based AidsMap.
"The man received bone marrow from a donor who had natural resistance to HIV infection; this was due to a genetic profile which led to the CCR5 co-receptor being absent from his cells," they explained. "The most common variety of HIV uses CCR5 as its ‘docking station’, attaching to it in order to enter and infect CD4 cells, and people with this mutation are almost completely protected against infection."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/doctors-hivinfected-man-cured-stem-cell-transplant/
An HIV-positive man who received a stem cell transplant for leukemia has been cured of HIV infection, doctors announced recently.
While the case was first reported at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, doctors have now published an updated report in the journal Blood, which affirms extensive testing.
"It is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient," the doctors wrote.
In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown suffered a relapse of leukemia that required a stem cell transplant. Brown, also known as "Berlin patient," was given stem cells from a donor that lacked the CCR5 receptor, "a condition that is present in less than 1 percent of Caucasians in northern and western Europe," according to London-based AidsMap.
"The man received bone marrow from a donor who had natural resistance to HIV infection; this was due to a genetic profile which led to the CCR5 co-receptor being absent from his cells," they explained. "The most common variety of HIV uses CCR5 as its ‘docking station’, attaching to it in order to enter and infect CD4 cells, and people with this mutation are almost completely protected against infection."
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/doctors-hivinfected-man-cured-stem-cell-transplant/
This is absolutely amazing. What I find even MORE amazing is the fact that we haven't heard about this all over the news. I wonder why that is. Maybe people are afraid to hope for it, but usually we jump at this stuff in the media. I am also wondering if there have been other cases where it looks this permanent. FYI, this is one of the areas where I break with the Republican party; I am all for stem cell research, and this is just one good story to support its pursuit and further investigation.
ReplyDelete