LOS ANGELES (KNX) – A team of researchers reported it may have cured a woman of HIV thanks to a new transplant procedure.
This woman is the third known case of HIV remission, according to Dr. Yvonne Bryson, who led the study.
Dr. Bryson, whose from the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, told KNX In Depth the woman was of mixed race and got leukemia, which required her to get stem cell transplant.
“…we as part of a protocol run by the National Institute of Health – and I was the chair of it – was using cord blood,” she explained, adding that cord blood has a “resistant mutation that makes the cells HIV resistant.”
“This woman received over four years ago this transplant, combined with some cells that are half match from a relative to enhance the recovery and she had been free of HIV since the beginning of this transplant and she stopped anti-viral medication 14 months ago and she remains without any evidence of HIV.”
Despite the success, Dr. Bryson advises that this treatment not to be taken light.
“I think it’s important for people to know this is a risky procedure and it should only be used in cases where you need this stem cell transplant for other reasons like cancer,” she explained.
Listen to the full interview in the audio above.
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