Stem Cell Transplant Patient HIV-Free

[Fearless]

Stem Cell Transplant Patient HIV-Free
By Julie Bolcer

A 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia continues to show no signs of HIV in his blood, two years after a stem cell transplant from a donor with a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to the virus that causes AIDS.

The stunning findings were published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, according to CNN, but doctors caution that the stem cell treatment is too dangerous to be of routine use to most people infected with HIV...


http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/04/02/Stem_Cell_Transplant_Patient_Free_of_HIV/

"Levy also said it's unlikely that the transplant truly cured the patient in this study. HIV can infect many other types of cells and may be hiding out in the patient's body to resurface at a later time, he said."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/11/health.hiv.stemcell/index.html?eref=rss_latest

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Getting closer. But still any victory is a plus. :thumbsup:

[Orrex]

1. Holy shit!

[xchrom]

2. Awesome! Nt

[polly7]

3. Yaaaaaaaayyyyy!! nt.

[pinto]

4. A step towards effective, safe gene therapy.

"Doctors say that while the risky stem cell transplant option should not be routinely exercised, the findings point the way toward development of potentially safer CCR5-disabling gene therapies or treatments that can be injected into the body."

[AwakeAtLast]

5. This is awesome

No more Repukes keeping down funding and what do we have? An amazing success!

:bounce:

[Fleshdancer]

6. WOW!!!!!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this was indeed a full recovery. This is amazing.

[BlueIris]

7. Interesting. nt

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. ...treatment is too dangerous to be of routine use... and the other options is suffering from AIDS?

:shrug:


I'm glad someone trying to find a cure.

[hunter]

9. Stem cell transplants are very dangerous, a last resort.

Infections can kill you before the transplant takes hold, and the transplant itself can kill you.

It's a host vs. graft reaction. In stem cell transplants you are the graft. If things go wrong it's not your body rejecting the transplant, it's the transplant rejecting you.

[PCIntern]

10. Same logic which doesn't want to create' addicts' out of

terminally ill cancer patients with unbearable pain.

You might be surprised at the number of patients I see who were not prescribed analgesics although they clearly had infections/pulpidites (inflammations of the dental pulp - OUCH!) which were horribly painful, b/c the dentists didn't want to make the patient an addict and be blamed for such.

hogwash, I say.

On edit: Stem cell transplants may be 'instantly' fatal...so it is a horrifying choice.