World's 1st woman 'cured' of HIV using rare stem cell transplant

An American team of researchers in Denver, Colorado, reported on Tuesday that they had cured a third person of HIV with a stem cell transplant, the first woman to be cured of the disease using this procedure.

The development was announced on February 15 at a “Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections” which was held virtually.

As reported in the New York Times, the woman was treated using a new method that used umbilical cord blood, which is more readily available than adult stem cells, which are commonly used for bone marrow transplants.

“The procedure used to treat the New York patient, known as a haplo-cord transplant, was developed by the Weill Cornell team to expand cancer treatment options for people with blood malignancies who lack HLA-identical donors,” the NBC reports.

“First, the cancer patient receives a transplant of umbilical cord blood, which contains stem cells that amount to a powerful nascent immune system. A day later, they receive a larger graft of adult stem cells. The adult stem cells flourish rapidly, but over time they are entirely replaced by cord blood cells,” the same source says.

According to the New York Times, despite the researchers continuing to monitor the woman’s recovery, no HIV-positive blood tests have been performed over the past 14 months.

“The fact that she’s mixed race, and that she’s a woman, that is really important scientifically and really important in terms of the community impact,” said Dr. Steven Deeks, an Aids expert, in a statement to New York Times.

Although women account for half of the world’s 35 million HIV cases, they only comprise 11% of those who participate in cure trials.

“These are stories of providing inspiration to the field and perhaps the road map,” Deeks added to the same source.

“Umbilical stem cells are attractive,” he said. “There’s something magical about these cells and something magical perhaps about the cord blood in general that provides an extra benefit.”