{"id":1281,"date":"2010-12-17T07:09:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T12:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2015-06-04T15:24:14","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T19:24:14","slug":"update-on-berlin-patient-ii-still-cured-of-hiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/update-on-berlin-patient-ii-still-cured-of-hiv\/2010\/12\/17\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on Berlin Patient II: Still Cured of HIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, who was Berlin Patient I?<\/p>\n

Second, over in the journal Blood <\/em>is the latest update<\/a> on Berlin Patient II, the guy apparently cured of HIV by bone marrow transplantation:<\/p>\n

\n

We have previously reported the case of an HIV-infected patient in whom viral replication remained absent despite discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy after transplantation with CCR5\u039432\/\u039432 stem cells…\u00a0\u00a0In the present study, we demonstrate successful reconstitution of CD4+ T cells at the systemic level as well as in the gut mucosal immune system following CCR5\u039432\/\u039432 stem cell transplantation, while the patient remains without any sign of HIV infection…\u00a0In conclusion, our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been achieved in this patient.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ever since this was first presented as a poster at CROI in 2008, it was pretty clear that this was a special case, and I’ve written about it several times before — first time here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What’s different now, of course, is that the longer duration of follow-up has allowed the authors to give much more detailed information about both his virologic and immunologic status — and to make more confident statements that he is <\/em>in fact cured of HIV.<\/p>\n

\"berlin\"And I agree.<\/p>\n

But numerous questions about this fascinating case remain, including the biggie — how did this happen?<\/em> Was it the CCR5-negative status of the donor’s cells? \u00a0Something about the “conditioning” (there’s a euphemism for you) regimen? \u00a0The fact that he’d been virologically suppressed when he went into the transplant? \u00a0(It’s obviously not just this.) \u00a0Some combination of the above?<\/p>\n

And though of course this transplant strategy can’t be widely adopted, one would expect at least one<\/em> other similar case to surface soon, right?<\/p>\n

By the way, for HIV history trivia buffs, this guy<\/a> was Berlin Patient I. \u00a0Must be something in the water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, who was Berlin Patient I? Second, over in the journal Blood is the latest update on Berlin Patient II, the guy apparently cured of HIV by bone marrow transplantation: We have previously reported the case of an HIV-infected patient in whom viral replication remained absent despite discontinuation of antiretroviral therapy after transplantation with CCR5\u039432\/\u039432 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,8,10],"tags":[111,121,258,334,423],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-hiv","category-infectious-diseases","category-patient-care","category-research","tag-berlin-patient","tag-bone-marrow-transplantation","tag-cure","tag-eradication","tag-hiv"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}