Has The Cure for HIV Finally Been Discovered?

Written by Mariyam Mohammed

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a sexually transmitted viral infection that spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids (Balzer, 2021). A woman with HIV could also transmit the virus to her child during pregnancy, childbirth, or while breastfeeding. There are three stages of an HIV infection: acute HIV infection, chronic HIV infection, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (NIH, 2021). It has been over 40 years since the first scientific paper describing AIDS was published, however, there is no effective cure for HIV to date (CDC, 2021).

HIV Virus Infecting Host Cells (Clements, 2020). Image retrieved from: https://newsroom.uw.edu/news/new-clues-emerge-how-block-reemergence-hiv

Why is HIV so Hard to Cure?

There are many reasons why HIV is so hard to cure, the main one being that it is a retrovirus. Retroviruses are a group of viruses that integrate into the host genome. This means that the virus can use the host cell’s machinery to replicate viral DNA. HIV undergoes many complex processes during viral replication (AGT, 2020). These complex processes, such as reverse transcription and recombination, lead to many mutations in the virus (AGT, 2020). Mutations allow the virus to evolve, making it harder to target with therapeutics (AGT, 2020). According to a paper published in 2017, HIV has the highest recorded mutation rate (Andrews & Rowland-Jones, 2017).

How Can Stem Cells Cure HIV?

Stem cells are cells that have the potential to develop into different types of cells. Stem cell transplantation can be used to replace bone marrow that has been damaged or destroyed by diseases, such as cancer. Earlier this year, the first woman was cured of HIV after stem cell transplantation (Reuters, 2022). The patient with leukemia received chemotherapy first, to kill cancerous cells and then doctors transplanted stem cells from two sources, a healthy adult relative and from umbilical cord blood of an unrelated newborn child which contains an HIV-resistance gene (Weill Cornell Medicine, 2022). After the transplantation, the patient’s blood cell population consisted of HIV-resistant blood cells, derived from the cord blood cells (Weill Cornell Medicine, 2022). With further testing, doctors did not detect HIV in the patient, even after the patient stopped taking HIV treatment medications (Weill Cornell Medicine, 2022). This research is promising and emphasizes the possibility of using stem cell transplant to cure HIV.

• References

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  7. Reuters, T. (2022, February 16). U.S. patient becomes 1st woman cured of HIV after stem cell transplant | CBC news. Retrieved March 2, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/woman-cured-hiv-stem-cell-transplant-1.6352938

  8. Weill Cornell Medicine. (2022, February 18). Patient possibly cured of HIV infection by special stem-cell transplant. Patient Possibly Cured of HIV Infection by Special Stem-Cell TransplantPatient Possibly Cured of HIV Infection by Special Stem-Cell Transplant. Retrieved March 2, 2022, from https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2022/02/patient-possibly-cured-of-hiv-infection-by-special-stem-cell-transplant