A second HIV patient is reportedly clear of the virus after undergoing a bone marrow transplant during cancer treatment. The operation is so arduous, and HIV-resistant doners so dare, that the procedure isn’t likely to become commonplace. But the second result will focus resources on the cure’s mechanism of action in hopes of developing a more accessible treatment.
Prof Ravindra Gupta from University College London and lead author of the paper on the successful treatment of the London patient, published in the journal Nature, said the way forward could be editing of the CCR5 gene, which allows HIV to enter cells.
“A field was generated as a result of the Berlin patient looking at CCR5 gene-editing,” he said. “You may have heard of the Chinese babies that were having experimental knockout of that particular gene.”