Diseases & conditions

'Oslo Patient' Achieves Long-Term HIV Remission

Is stem cell transplant the HIV cure breakthrough we've been waiting for or just a medical marvel too rare to matter?

Published APR 14

'Oslo Patient' Achieves Long-Term HIV Remission

Story

Above: Microscopic image of an HIV-infected T cell. Image credit: Unsplash

The Facts

A 63-year-old Norwegian man known as the "Oslo patient" has gone into long-term HIV remission after a stem cell transplant from his brother, making him one of roughly 10 people worldwide to achieve this outcome following a transplant for an unrelated blood cancer.
GMA News Online
Medicalxpress
The Oslo patient was diagnosed with HIV in 2006 and developed myelodysplastic syndrome, a fatal blood cancer, in 2017. His doctors selected his elder brother as a donor after failing to find a suitable match, only discovering on the day of the 2020 transplant that the brother carried the rare CCR5 mutation.
Independent
INQUIRER.net
The CCR5Δ32/Δ32 mutation removes receptor proteins that HIV uses to infect immune cells. Only around 1% of people in northern Europe carry it, and a sibling has just a 25% probability of being a transplant match, making this combination of factors exceptionally rare.
Scientific American
The Pinknews
Two years after the transplant, the patient stopped antiretroviral therapy. Subsequent testing of blood, gut and bone marrow samples found no detectable HIV DNA, no virus capable of replicating and no HIV-specific T-cell responses across more than 65 million immune cells analyzed.
Independent
ScienceAlert
In a study published in the journal Nature Microbiology on Monday, researchers noted it was the first time complete immune cell replacement had been confirmed in a cured patient's bone marrow and gut tissue, the latter being where HIV most commonly persists in a dormant state. The patient's HIV antibody levels also declined over four years post-transplant.
Nature
ScienceAlert
Medicalxpress
The original Berlin patient, Timothy Ray Brown, was the first person declared cured of HIV in 2008. No trace of the virus remained in his body, nor did it ever reappear. Although he died in 2020, the cause was a recurrence of the cancer from which he had previously suffered.
Scientific American
INQUIRER.net
EL PAÍS English

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The Spin

Techno-optimist narrative

Ten people have now been cured of HIV through stem cell transplants using the CCR5Δ32/Δ32 mutation, and the Oslo patient's four years off antiretrovirals proves this isn't a fluke. The science is clear — allogeneic immunity destroys HIV reservoirs, and the mutation blocks any remaining virus from re-entering cells. This is proof that a scalable cure is within reach.

Live Science

r/science on Reddit

Techno-skeptic narrative

This is not the solution to HIV. Stem cell transplantation, while scientifically significant, remains a high-risk and complex procedure unsuitable for widespread use. Consequently, medical professionals continue to rely on antiretroviral therapy, which effectively controls the virus. In the present context, pursuing such transplants lacks practical justification for the majority of individuals living with HIV.