An HIV patient in Oslo, Norway has been confirmed to be cured after receiving a stem cell transplant from his older brother, AFP reports. This makes him the first case in the world of a disease that was previously incurable and was cured through a family member's donation.
The stem cell transplant was performed to treat the blood cancer myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) that the patient has suffered from since 2018. But the patient's older brother has the CCR5-delta 32 mutation, which makes immune cells immune to the HIV-1 virus. This mutation is extremely rare with only about 1% of the Northern European population having two copies of the mutation.
The stem cell transplant was performed in 2020 and after two years, the patient, nicknamed the "Oslo Patient", stopped taking antiretroviral treatment for HIV. After four years, no HIV virus was detected in his bone marrow and stomach cells. Scientifically, the Oslo Patient has completely recovered from HIV infection, making him the 10th person to be successfully treated in history.
Timothy Ray Brown was the first person with HIV to be successfully treated in 2008. He received the nickname “The Berlin Patient.” Like the Oslo Patient, he underwent a stem cell transplant to treat leukemia from a donor with the CCR5-delta 32 mutation. Despite living HIV-free after treatment, Brown died in 2020 after a relapse of leukemia.
