THURSDAY, March 12, 2020 (HealthDay News) — A second case of HIV-1 cure following allogeneic hemopoietic stem cell transplantation has been reported at 30 months after analytical treatment interruption (ATI), according to a study published online March 10 in The Lancet HIV.
Ravindra Kumar Gupta, Ph.D., from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues presented long-term data for a patient up to 30 months after ATI. Ultrasensitive viral load assays of plasma, semen, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were used to detect HIV-1 RNA.
The researchers found that using an assay with a detection limit of 1 copy per mL, HIV-1 viral load in plasma remained undetectable in the patient up to 30 months. At 28 months, the patient’s CD4 count was 430 cells per µL; in peripheral CD4 memory cells, a very low-level positive signal for HIV-1 DNA was recorded. At 21 months, the viral load in semen was undetectable in plasma and cells. At 25 months, CSF was within normal parameters, with HIV-1 RNA below the detection limit. In rectum, cecum, and sigmoid colon and terminal ileum tissue samples at 22 months, HIV-1 DNA by droplet digital polymerase chain reaction was negative. At 27 months, HIV-1-specific CV4 and CD8 T-cell responses remained absent.
“It is important to note that this curative treatment is high-risk, and only used as a last resort for patients with HIV who also have life-threatening hematological malignancies,” Gupta said in a statement.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.
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