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  • First Documented Case of Child Cured of HIV

    First Documented Case of Child Cured of HIV

    Mar. 3, 2013 — Researchers today described the first documented case of a child being cured of HIV. The landmark findings were announced at the 2013 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, GA.

    Dr. Deborah Persaud, of Johns Hopkins University and an amfAR grantee, detailed the case of a two-year-old child in Mississippi diagnosed with HIV at birth and immediately put on antiretroviral therapy. At 18 months, the child ceased taking antiretrovirals and was lost to follow-up. When brought back into care at 23 months, despite being off treatment for five months, the child was found to have an undetectable viral load. A battery of subsequent highly sensitive tests confirmed the absence of HIV.

    Confirmation of the cure was made possible by a grant the Foundation awarded to Dr. Persaud and Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the University of Massachusetts in September 2012. The grant allowed Drs. Persaud and Luzuriaga to establish a research collaboratory to explore and document possible pediatric HIV cure cases. The collaboratory includes renowned researchers Drs. Stephen Spector and Doug Richman at the University of California, San Diego; Dr. Frank Maldarelli at the National Cancer Institute; and Dr. Tae-Wook Chun at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

    "The child's pediatrician in Mississippi [Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi] was aware of the work we were doing, and quickly notified our team as soon as this young patient's case came to her attention," said Dr. Rowena Johnston, amfAR vice president and director of research. "Because the collaboratory was already in place, the researchers were able to mobilize immediately and perform the tests necessary to determine if this was in fact a case of a child being cured."

    According to Dr. Persaud, comprehensive tests have confirmed beyond doubt that both mother and child were HIV positive when the child was born, and today no signs of HIV infection in the child can be detected by the most sensitive means available.

    The only other documented case of an HIV cure to date remains that of Timothy Brown, the so-called "Berlin patient." In 2006, while on treatment for HIV, Mr. Brown was diagnosed with leukemia. His physician was able to treat his leukemia with a stem-cell transplant from a person who was born with a genetic mutation causing immunity to HIV infection. Following the transplant, Mr. Brown was able to stop HIV treatment without experiencing a return of his HIV disease.

    This new case points to the tantalizing possibility that different populations of HIV-positive people might be cured in different ways. While Mr. Brown's case was the outcome of a complex, high-risk, and expensive series of procedures, this new case appears to have been the direct result of a comparatively inexpensive course of antiretroviral therapy.

    "Given that this cure appears to have been achieved by antiretroviral therapy alone," said Dr. Johnston, "it is also imperative that we learn more about a newborn's immune system, how it differs from an adult's, and what factors made it possible for the child to be cured."

    The Mississippi case also underscores the importance of identifying HIV-positive pregnant women, expanding access to treatment regimens than can prevent mother-to-child transmission, and of immediately putting infants on antiretroviral therapy in the event that they are born HIV positive.

    "We are proud to have played a leading role in bringing this first pediatric HIV cure to light," said amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost. "The case is a startling reminder that a cure for HIV could come in ways we never anticipated, and we hope this is the first of many children cured of HIV in the months and years to come."
    Truth? Hoax? Early April fool's?
    Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

    Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

  • #2
    could be any of them,

    until we see other cured and stay well years after, i would not get my hopes up too much
    "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

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    • #3
      From other sources I'm seeing, including LA Times, the child is "functionally cured" of AIDS. Dunno what that means, and this could all be one massive fluke that nobody has any idea how it happened, but it's still an incredible thing, to be the second person in the world to be cured from AIDS....
      Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

      Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

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      • #4
        There are a few cases where certain people infected with HIV proved unusually resilient to the virus...maybe this is something genetic? The potential for a built in adaption against HIV and other immunosuppressive viruses would be an extraordinary find.
        "Draft beer, not people."

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        • #5
          There's also the case of Tim Brown, Patient Berlin, the first person cured of AIDS:

          Brown was diagnosed with HIV in 1995. In 2006, he also developed leukemia while living in Germany. [His doctor, Gero] Hutter performed a blood stem cell transplant using a donor with a rare gene mutation that provides natural resistance to HIV. Hutter said that resistance transferred to Brown.
          The jury is still out on whether he was actually cured or it went into deep remission and is now showing up again...
          Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

          Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

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          • #6
            If I were an HIV infected pregnant women, I would be asking where to sign up for this? With any kind of chance of curing my own child, AND being able to possibly help others at the same time...Amazing.

            I hope they are on the track to a cure.
            "To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are."-Sholem Asch

            "I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."-Earl Warren

            "I didn't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs."-Nancy Reagan, when asked a political question at a "Just Say No" rally

            "He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules."-Earl Butz, on the Pope's attitude toward birth control

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            • #7
              Originally posted by bigross86 View Post
              There's also the case of Tim Brown, Patient Berlin, the first person cured of AIDS:



              The jury is still out on whether he was actually cured or it went into deep remission and is now showing up again...
              One would hope that those same HIV-inhibiting conditions can be replicated artificially; through gene therapy or otherwise. Though I have to say...horrible luck to have been diagnosed with both HIV and Leukemia in a lifetime.
              "Draft beer, not people."

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              • #8
                This is truly wonderful news. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me. Being a cautious soul, however, I have the following reservations.

                1) We need to see if it is replicable in other children;
                2) We need to monitor this girl & ensure that this is a 'cure' rather that the virus just adapting before changing again;
                3) We need to make sure that the treatment is available widely. The vast majority of children who might benefit from this treatment are in the worst parts of the world to recieve it.

                If this works it represents not only a remarkable saving of human lives, it represents a huge potential financial saving. if treatment for a few years at the start of life can provide a cure it would save societies least able to pay not only the cost of losing what could be a productive life, but also the cost of treating someone dying a slow death over an extended period of time. The potential is truly amazing. lets hope it turns out that way.
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                Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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                • #9
                  A little late to this thread, but hey, whatever, I love this stuff. The girl who sits next to me in lab was actually at the conference where they announced this, my envy is only now subsiding...

                  Originally posted by bigross86 View Post
                  There's also the case of Tim Brown, Patient Berlin, the first person cured of AIDS:

                  The jury is still out on whether he was actually cured or it went into deep remission and is now showing up again...
                  At this point most folks seem pretty confident he's cured. Of course he's a unique case, but we have a fair amount of experience with latent HIV infections now, and nothing like this has ever been seen. If you go off your meds, the virus comes roaring back very fast.

                  Originally posted by Bigfella
                  1) We need to see if it is replicable in other children;
                  It won't be, or rather, it won't be replicated very often, because this particular situation is quite rare, and this type of cure will only work in this specific situation. Frankly I'm surprised it worked at all, and it suggests to me that we have a lot to learn about the details of infant immune development.

                  2) We need to monitor this girl & ensure that this is a 'cure' rather that the virus just adapting before changing again;
                  Almost certainly is a cure. Modern detection methods are extremely sensitive, and if you don't see virus circulating, it's not replicating. Without replication, adaptation is impossible. There is perhaps a slight chance that there is a reservoir stuck away in some organ somewhere that is somehow completely sequestered from the bloodstream, but I find this implausible.

                  3) We need to make sure that the treatment is available widely. The vast majority of children who might benefit from this treatment are in the worst parts of the world to recieve it.
                  The interesting thing is that mother-to-child transmission can mostly be prevented by a much weaker drug regimen, just a single dose of one particular antiretroviral. Which is great for third world countries 'cause it's cheap. The downside is that it's a great way to increase the frequency of drug resistant HIV strains, so yeah, I'm hoping this will maybe push doctors to use multi-drug treatment if at all possible.

                  Anyway, my general take, after some reading, and talking with my boss (I am not an HIV expert, but he most certainly is...): Probably a legit cure, very little general applicability, especially in the developed world, as mother-to-child transmission has almost entirely been solved by antiretrovirals. Similar treatment regimens have been used for years to prevent children of HIV+ mothers from getting infected. The only difference is that, in this case, there is evidence that the child actually was infected prior to beginning treatment, so, rather than preventing infection, the treatment knocked out an already partly established infection.

                  May turn out to be very helpful in the long run, as it's a pretty surprising result, and teasing out the mechanism could provide some clues about how HIV latency works, which is the primary block to finding a real, widely applicable cure.
                  I enjoy being wrong too much to change my mind.

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