A recent publication shows that for a second time a patient was “cured” by a bone-marrow transplant. The donor had two copies of a mutation in the CCR5 gene (CD195 or C-C chemokine receptor type 5), which gives people resistance to HIV infection. For 18 month now, the patient was able to stop taking antiretroviral drugs with no detectable viral loads. This is incredibly good news however this kind of treatment wouldn’t be suitable for most people with HIV. A person that doesn’t have cancer won’t be suitable for a bone-marrow transplant, which is a serious procedure that can sometimes have fatal complications. However this leads research in pursuing their effort to find a way to help patients targeting CD195 receptor. (1)
Earlier this year, in a nature communication article, a research group led by Dr. Nicolas chomont has evaluated the therapeutic potential of shown immunotherapy target targeting pd-1, a known target in cancer modern treatment. The results of this study are really encouraging and should lead to further studies on how those emerging immunotherapy approaches can participate in the development of efficient HIV therapies. (2)
Studying all those different targets will eventually lead to elucidating some the mechanisms by which HIV could be eradicated. Until then, we will continue to offer a variety of and to help the scientific community in their projects.