A New York woman who received a stem cell transplant has become the third person to be cured of HIV, researchers reported Tuesday.
The woman, who had acute myeloid leukemia, received stem cells from umbilical cord blood and has been in remission and free of the virus for 14 months, according to the results reported at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver.
The woman is no longer taking antiretroviral therapy drugs used to fight HIV. Nearly 38 million people in the world take antiviral drugs to control HIV.
“This is now the third report of a cure in this setting, and the first in a woman living with HIV,” Sharon Lewin, President-Elect of the International AIDS Society, said in a statement.
The other two people reported cured of the virus that causes AIDS are men who received adult stem cell treatment and continue to be free of any traces of the virus.
The woman was part of a study following 25 people with HIV who underwent a transplant with stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
Those in the treatment undergo chemotherapy to kill cancerous immune cells, then get stem cells from people who lack the receptors that HIV uses to infect the body.
The stem cells help the person develop an immune system that is resistant to HIV.
The woman is of mixed race, and researchers said her results show that using umbilical cord blood as a treatment could lead to curing more people of diverse racial backgrounds than was possible with other treatments that require a close match between the donor and recipient of the cells.
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