In July this year, a man from Brazil was reportedly the first person to be cured of HIV without bone transplant surgery. He is nicknamed the 'Sao Paulo patient' who received a multi-drug concoction of AIDS medicines during a 48-week treatment with four other HIV patients.
But on Wednesday, researchers from the United States revealed that a 66-year-old woman who was infected with HIV in 1992 might be the first person to be cured of the virus without any medical treatment. She had neither a bone marrow transplant nor medications.
First to be Cured of HIV/AIDS without Medical Treatment
First to be Cured of HIV/AIDS without Medical Treatment
The study, published in the journal Nature, reports that 63 people have controlled the infection without drugs, which suggests a mechanism by which the bodies can isolate HIV in a way that it could not reproduce. This mechanism is only present now due to advances in genetics.
The study results suggest that these individuals might have developed a 'functional cure' for HIV/AIDS. It also offers hope to those small number of people who have taken antiretroviral therapy (ART) for many years, which may also be able to subdue the virus, leading them to stop taking the drugs.
"It does suggest that treatment itself can cure people, which goes against all the dogma," said study author and AIDS expert from the University of California, Dr. Steve Deeks.
Loreen Willenberg, 66, is from California known for her body that can stop the virus for decades now since the infection. Two people have already been known to be cured of HIV, but they both underwent the grueling bone marrow transplants for cancer, which made their immune system resistant to the virus. They are timothy Brown from Palm Springs, California, and dam Castillejo from London, UK.
The procedure is too risky to be an option for all the HIV patients, but recoveries from this method give hope that a cure is possible.
How was the woman cured without HIV/AIDS treatment?
Senior author and Harvard University researcher Dr. Xu Yu said that intensive scrutiny on the participants in their study showed that the certain 'blocked and locked' regions of the genome had stopped the viral genes from reproducing.
These types of people make up one percent of the HIV patients who are called the elite controllers as they keep the virus in check without taking antiretroviral drugs or HIV/AIDS treatment.
Furthermore, the researchers suggest that it is possible for people who have taken an antiretroviral drug for many years to develop the same immunity as their treatments can boost the immune system.
Elite controllers have been studied for more than 25 years to find clues controlling HIV. The studies yielded a positive result, except one test from a few years back, but the researchers saw no sign of the virus in Willenberg's tissues.
Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity's director Dr. Sharon Lewin said that Willenberg could be classified as cured through a unique path.
But other experts want to see more tests done before considering her as a cured patient. However, they acknowledge that her case is certainly encouraging.
READ MORE: An Injectable Drug Can Block HIV From Entering Cells
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