HIV: 20 months' remission after a bone marrow transplant with no protective mutation – the Geneva patient

In February 2023, the IciStem consortium, which includes Asier Sáez-Cirión's team at the Institut Pasteur, published details in Nature Medicine of a third case of HIV remission after a bone marrow transplant, involving the Düsseldorf patient. A total of 5 individuals (the Berlin, London, Düsseldorf, New York and City of Hope patients) are now considered as having probably been cured of HIV infection after receiving a bone marrow transplant. In all these cases, the bone marrow was taken from donors carrying the rare genetic mutation CCR5-delta 32, which is known to provide cells with natural protection against HIV.

At the International Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2023), Asier Sáez-Cirión, Head of the Institut Pasteur's Viral Reservoirs and Immune Control Unit, and Professor Alexandra Calmy, MD, PhD and HIV/AIDS Unit Director at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), will present a case of HIV remission following a bone marrow transplant performed as part of the patient's cancer treatment. The significance of this patient monitored in Geneva at the HUG, whose case is being examined jointly by the Institut Pasteur, Institut Cochin and the IciStem consortium, lies in the fact that the transplant was taken from a donor who does not carry the CCR5-delta 32 mutation. Therefore, unlike the cells of other individuals who are considered to have been cured, this person's cells remain HIV-permissive. Despite this, the virus was still undetectable 20 months after antiretroviral therapy was discontinued. These findings will be presented orally in Brisbane, Australia.

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