Topic: Stem cell transplant and HIV.

[Javora]

KHQ.COM - On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.

Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the "Berlin Patient," received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukaemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing " strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved."

While Brown is the first person to ever be declared cured of HIV, his case paves a path for constructing a cure for HIV through genetically-engineered stem cells.

Last week, Time named another AIDS-related discovery to its list of the Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010. Recent studies show that healthy individuals who take antiretrovirals, medicine commonly prescribed for treating HIV, can reduce their risk of contracting the disease by up to 73 percent.

While these developments by no means prove a cure for the virus has been found, they can certainly provide hope for the more than 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. Alongside such findings, global efforts to combat the epidemic have accelerated as of late, with new initiatives emerging in the Philippines and South Africa this week.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40662122/ns/local_news-spokane_wa/

This is promising news, it would be great to finally close in on this killer.

[knightstorm]

Were they trying to treat the HIV, or were they simply treating the Leukemia, and grasped onto this as an explanation when the HIV vanished.  I know that umbilical cord stem cells have been used as a leukemia treatment for a while now.

[FRA.E.Kehakoul_XC]

As far as i know, it was a side effect for a therapy targeting another problem he had,they initially didn't have a clue which of his treatments could have caused the effect of wiping hiv off.

[Bonk]

Considering the nature of Leukemia and it's "T-cell" variants I would not necessarily attribute the apparent extinction of HIV in the host to the stem cell treatment alone. I expect a synergy of the conditions and treatment was involved. The question is: does he still have leukemia? It is pretty fatal.