German Doctor Cures an HIV Patient With a Bone Marrow Transplant

reporter writes "HIV is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Until now, HIV has no cure and has led to the deaths of over 25 million people. However, a possible cure has appeared. Dr. Gero Hutter, a brilliant physician in Germany, replaced the bone marrow of an HIV patient with the bone marrow of a donor who has natural immunity to HIV. The new bone marrow in the patient then produced immune-system cells that are immune to HIV. Being unable to hijack any immune cell, the HIV has simply disappeared. The patient has been free of HIV for about 2 years. Some physicians at UCLA have developed a similar therapy and plan to commercialize it."

Comments

Like to see this replicated

[Geoffrey.landis]

I'll be really interested to see if this result can be replicated.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll be really interested to see if this result can be replicated.

I'll be really interested to see if this DONOR can be replicated.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[ScrewMaster]

I'll be really interested to see if this result can be replicated.

I'll be really interested to see if this DONOR can be replicated.

I've been expecting something like this ever since the discovery of HIV-immune individuals. So yes, the donor can be replicated.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[DebateG]

I think the end goal is to use this method for autologous stem cell transplant (when the donor is the same as the recipient) rather than allogeneic (when the donor is different). Currently, there are technologies such as small interfering RNA (siRNA) that let you suppress a specific gene through genetic engineering. They are widely used in research, although there are many hurdles before they make the transition to clinical use. It would go something like this:

1. Draw out someone's own stem cells
2. Permanently express the CCR5 siRNA in their stem cells by culturing them with a virus
3. Wipe the person's bone marrow out by total body irradiation
4. Reinfuse the altered stem cells

The advantage of this method is that, since the stem cells are coming from your own body, there is no graft vs host disease (which is essentially like standard organ rejection, but instead the organ rejected is your entire body being rejected by the graft... you can imagine that this is very bad). Of course, you still have the problem of developing leukemia later from the total body irradiation and viral integration into an important gene. You also have a high risk of death upfront when you spend several weeks without a functional immune system when the transplant is taking. But nevertheless, it's exciting.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[Cyberax]

On the contrary, bone marrow transplants are the cheapest transplants.

In essence, bone marrow transplantation is just an intravenous injection.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[Pax681]

IIRC i watched a TV doc about HIV immunity and how it was found. there is a link to the black death here too.

AS it was discovered that the very same genes that help immunity from the black death are same for HIV.

if you have none of this gene pair "switched on" then you are gonna get ill quick and die......

if you have one of the pair on then you will go on for a few weeks THEN come down with symptoms.

However with BOTH genes switched on you are immune but carry the black death/HIV virus. Was on the discovery channel....

It was also apparently found that is was only ethnic Europeans who had this gene switched on... this led to some conspiracy theories about HIV/AIDS being created to be targeted at non whites.

NEVER let it be said that a late night spliff to chill out whilst Discovery is on is a waste of your chill time!

Re:Like to see this replicated

[aproposofwhat]

It's true - 14% descendants of the inhabitants of the plague village of Eyam in Derbyshire, England have the mutation.

It's a beautiful little village with an excellent church and museum, if you ever get a chance to visit.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[SlashBugs]

Background for non-biologists: HIV typically gains entry to cells by binding two molecules on the healthy cell surface. These are CXCR4 and CCR5. About 1% of white males (other genders/races vary slightly) don't have CCR5; they seem completely healthy and their cells are highly resistant to HIV infection. So blocking the activity of CCR5 seems like an easy way to stop viral infection with no exprected side effects. Tricky to do, but probably worth the effort.

Anyway, the answer is "yes", sort of. Several antibodies and small peptides are in trials to block the CCR5 receptor; some are showing promise in animal trials.

The most famous is Maraviroc, a small molecule that binds CCR5 and stops is from binding HIV. It's sold by Pfizer and currently in use as an anti-HIV drug.

Another interesting possibility is gene therapy. Another group has recently made CD4 T cells (one of the cell types that HIV infects) express a small molecule to block their own CCR5 receptors, which works very well. I haven't seen a paper on it, but you should also be able to use similar techniques to completely shut down CCR5 production (using virus- or plasmid-borne shRNA, for example).

Finally, another group has managed to make rabbits produce antibodies against CCR5 receptors (Vaccine
Volume 26, Issue 45, 23 October 2008, Pages 5752-5759). Those antibodies are able to bind to CCR5 and completely block HIV infection, which is great. Stimulating an immune response against the patient's own immune cells sound a bit dodgey to me, but my immunology isn't great: maybe there's a well-established way around this problem that I just don't know about.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[geckipede]

Most of the drug treatments seemed like a viable strategy at one point. HIV mutates extremely rapidly though, and it seems able to bypass almost anything we can throw at it. If the new types of drugs can reduce the virus's ability to replicate effectively enough that it doesn't get an opportunity evolve a way round then in theory it could work. The problem with that is that you would need to administer the drug reliably on schedule for every infected person all the time and that doesn't happen. The treatments are expensive, and even worse, enough people see HIV/AIDS as some sort of punishment for promiscuity that some people are denied treatments intermittently because people don't feel comfortable giving it to them.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[SlashBugs]

Malaria kills far more people per year than AIDS, and seems likely to keep that up for the forseeable future.

I assume that you don't have the sickle-cell anemia that gives partial protection against the malarial parasite?

OK then, I've got the bolt-cutters ready. Call my secretary and make an appointment for your sterilisation.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[amorsen]

Transplanting bone marrow to a HIV-infected individual should, IMO, be followed by a mandatory sterilisation.

The exact same argument can be made about any other deadly disease with a cure. We should obviously be sterilising everyone who gets antiobiotics to cure pneumonia.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[FrkyD]

true, just like the quaint idea that medical care shouldn't bankrupt you.
Speaking as an American that's lived on both sides of the pond, with a mother in the states being nearly bankrupted by her cancer treatment and a mother-in-law in europe who had the same level of care with no added costs, I know which system I prefer.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[andot]

Bone marrow removing is not very painful. It basically chemotherapy and all needed cells are collected from blood not from bones. I have been bone marrow donor for myself. Read about it http://rarediseases.about.com/od/rarediseasesb/a/bmt05.htm

Re:Like to see this replicated

[SlashBugs]

If it makes you feel better, I'm at the end of a PhD in the field. So I know more about HIV and AIDS than most of the population and, indeed, am one of the "phoney researchers" who generates the same data that I am, apparrantly, ignoring.

Tell us - what's your Ph.D. in?

Try getting your science from reputable schools or journals rather than mass-market paperbacks.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[Khyber]

Black Death is not a virus. It is a bacterium. Yersinia pestis.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[lysergic.acid]

or you could do a little research yourself before running your mouth off.

in the U.S. there are also conscience clauses in several states that allow pharmacists to refuse to fill a patent's prescription based on religious grounds. this was primarily introduced to to deny women emergency contraceptive pills, but it also opens the door for denying patients other types of medical treatment based on religious prejudices.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[joocemann]

HIV is not the cause of AIDS...
AIDS has failed to move out of the 'high risk' groups, in over 25 years...
The number of 'HIV positive' CASES in Western countries has failed to increase year upon year...
(Obviously the TOTAL of so-called 'HIV positive' people has increased each year, because the cases are counted CUMULATIVELY, unlike every other disease. Cancer for example...)
STD cases are rising every year (NON-CUMULATIVE figures, of course), yet where are all the teenagers dying from 'AIDS'?
Up to one third of people who are 'HIV positive' don't KNOW they are 'HIV positive', and therefore cannot be taking any of the so-called 'medications', which allegedly keep 'HIV positive' people alive. Why aren't they dropping like flies? This is hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. alone. Why aren't they spreading the 'deadly virus' like wildfire, since they don't know they have it, and other STDs are spreading like wildfire?

Read the book 'Science sold out'.

HIV and AIDS 'research' are the biggest example of modern scientific fraud ever perpetrated on the people of this planet by the pharmaceutical companies and phoney 'researchers'...

Cue pathetic responses from Slashdotters who know sod all about HIV and AIDS, ignore the real world evidence that proves there is no such thing as 'HIV', and that AIDS is not sexually transmitted...

You are full of shit.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[lysergic.acid]

cherry pick all you want. AIDS/HIV sufferers being denied treatment because of societal prejudices is well-documented. whether it's drug users, prostitutes, rape victims, or just ordinary women with HIV, people are being denied AIDS/HIV treatment because of the social stigma around these populations and their perceived lifestyles.

it's ignorant attitudes like yours that cause these prejudices to dictate public policy at the expense of public health. even if you don't care whether IV drug users live or die, giving them access to medical treatment in the name of harm-reduction is the beneficial to society at large. any rational person can see that eliminating potential disease vectors is a good thing.

denying prostitutes & drug users adequate access to medical treatment in order to punish them for their lifestyles is just cutting off the nose to spite the face. that kind of attitude has prevented the adoption of needle exchange programs in many areas despite studies showing that such harm-reduction programs save cities tax-payers millions of dollars each year by preventing the spread of disease--which inevitably affects non-drug users as well.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[ScrewMaster]

You seem confident. Now would you have unprotected sex with an HIV+ person multiple times a week over the course of a year to prove your hypothesis?

I doubt it...

I dunno ... is she really hot?

Re:Like to see this replicated

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because Hitler did something doesn't make it bad. I'm sure Hitler ate and drank, but does that make you a nazi when you have breakfast?

Only if I'm having Luftwaffles!

Re:Like to see this replicated

[lysergic.acid]

in many states you still need a prescription to get "Plan B"/"morning after pill"-type emergency contraceptives. which is dumb because there's a limited window of effectiveness for those type of drugs.

though there is a growing movement in the U.S. to make these drugs available over the counter. according to Wikipedia a nonprescription behind-the-counter preparation of Plan B is available in California to women 18 years or older. this was supposed to have been put into effect in 2006, but i haven't heard much about it. i just know that about 2-3 years ago my gf at the time had to get her prescriptions from a rapid-approval website, and (i think) it took about 6 hours between filling out the online and actually getting the prescription filled at a local pharmacy.

and if you don't like the idea of the conscience clause you're not alone. unfortunately, freedom of religion in the U.S. has turned into freedom to subject others to your religion. that's what happens when separation of church and state is flouted by a society. it starts with relatively innocuous things like adding "in god we trust" to our currency and injecting theocratic sentiments into the pledge of allegiance, but then quickly spreads to more insidious things, like encroaching on the rights of patients.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[Rary]

Ok, first of all, emergency contraceptive pills are not prescribed drugs. Anyone can go to a pharmacy and get them over the shelf!

Well, sort of. Many places still refuse to take them out from behind the counter, and they insist on putting the patient through an "interview" before allowing them to purchase the drug. I'm not sure if they'll actually deny them the drug if they're not happy with the answers to the questions.

Second, if I read your post right, the idea that a pharmacist has the authority to deny me drugs that a doctor prescribed, based soly on their religious beliefs is complete and utter bullshit!

It is absolutely bullshit. And yet it happens.

Re:Like to see this replicated

[PCM2]

Words fail me. The DEFINITION of AIDS REQUIRES the patient to be 'HIV positive' in order for them to be diagnosed with 'AIDS'... i.e. it's a circular argument, moron...

Well, that's Koch's Postulates for you. If an organism has a disease and you can isolate a pathogen from that organism and then culture that pathogen outside the organism, then introduce that pathogen to another organism and the new organism exhibits the same disease... well, if you can do that, then Koch might say you're onto something. (This HAS been done with HIV/AIDS, by the way.)

By your logic, if the definition of having the flu requires that the patient be infected with a strain of the influenza virus, then it's a circular argument to claim that influenza causes the flu. So long as influenza can be isolated from any organism that doesn't have sniffles, then influenza must not cause flu.

Or to put it even more simply for you retards: TB death - HIV = TB death TB death WITH HIV = 'AIDS'

It is you who are making the circular argument. It is entirely possible to die of tuberculosis without having a compromised immune system -- in fact, it happens all the time -- and these deaths would not be classified as AIDS. A tuberculosis patient who does not mount an immune response is an anomaly, and then doctors must investigate why there is no immune response. Tuberculosis is not caused by a virus, and does not attack immune system cells, therefore a low T-cell count is not considered a symptom of tuberculosis. HIV is a virus and HIV has been shown to attack immune cells, therefore when a patient with both tuberculosis and HIV dies of tuberculosis after having failed to mount an immune response, it seems only logical to suspect HIV. But you argue that HIV does not cause AIDS, and in fact HIV is a harmless virus, and therefore someone who dies of TB with a compromised immune system who also has HIV could not have failed to mount an immune response because of HIV. What, then is the reason for the lack of immune response?

All the scientific evidence proves, beyond ANY doubt, that 'AIDS' is not a sexually transmitted disease, that 'AIDS' 'medications' are what kill people in the West

How? How does it prove this? Please explain, because so far it doesn't seem as if you're adequately informed.

The article you cite is extremely easy to rebut. Like Duseberg's original claims, it does not cite any research later than 1997. HIV/AIDS research has come a long, long way since then. Furthermore, the article only focuses on research into AIDS cases in the U.S. Its hypothesis is that AIDS is caused by the use of AZT and other drugs, including recreational drugs. It furthermore claims that almost all AIDS is found in homosexual men and heterosexual drug abusers. The implication is that behaviors, including sex between men and drug use, are the cause of AIDS.

How does this article explain the AIDS epidemic in Africa, where AIDS is far, far more prevalent than in the U.S.? During the height of the African epidemic, Africans did not have access to AZT or similar drugs, nor did they use cocaine and amyl poppers in any great prevalence. Furthermore, in Africa the AIDS epidemic is primarily a disease of heterosexuals, including females.

How does a behavior-based cause of AIDS explain cases of AIDS in children and hemophiliacs?

How does this theory of AIDS explain why HIV+ patients have had longer lifespans since the beginning of the HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) era? If, as you claim, the cause of AIDS is in fact the drugs designed to cure it, then why does giving patients a combination of many such drugs make them live longer than they did when they had just one such drug (AZT)?

Of course, none of you will bother reading it, because you might have to THINK, and you would literally rather DIE, wouldn't you?

I have read it. It is you who are not thinking. In f

Re:Like to see this replicated

[DamnStupidElf]

It's not "subjecting others to your religion". It's denial, and it's an important part of voluntary human relations. It simply doesn't matter if religion is behind it. Forcing doctors to perform procedures against their will is slavery.

A license to become a doctor or pharmacist implies putting the patient's interests first and following well established medical guidelines. If abortion, birth control, or euthanasia is what the patient wants, the *licensed* professions had better do their job or lose their license.

Would you license an engineer who wouldn't walk under ladders or go to the 13th floor to perform inspections, or who insisted the best way to keep a bridge standing was by throwing salt over his shoulder every day? Licensed professionals denying birth control is just as silly.

found the missing second to last step!

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Be born with natural HIV immunity.
2) Sell bone marrow to desperate people.
3) Profit!

Re:Is it for real this time?

[mapkinase]

I am not aware of anything that would require a condom for its movement.

Re:Is it for real this time?

[ScrewMaster]

Over the years, I've witnessed probably 640 articles on a cure for HIV either having been discovered, or very near.

Well, 640 articles should be enough for anyone.

Re:So you need immune bone marrow?

[jimicus]

Is there a way to create or replicate this bone marrow? Or will this immune donor be continually used for every AIDS patient in the world?

It's not quite as simple as that. As I understand it, there are different bone marrow types - just like you get different blood types - and for a transplant to be successful, you want to be transferring to someone with the same type. So for every HIV+ patient, you need to find a donor who is not only of the right type, but is also naturally immune.

Re:What I'd like to know is...

[dogberto]

Yeah there is...

Currently, the theory is that HIV immunity is provided by a mutation of the CCR5 receptor. In particular, it seems to provide an immunity also to the bubonic plague--it is as a result of the bubonic plague that this recessive mutation has manifested itself today in somewhat greater numbers in certain populations--natural selection, so to speak at work.

check out:
http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/01/66198
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCR5

Re:I know what bone marrow transplants do to peopl

[jcr]

BMT is a major, major procedure.

With about 30% mortality, I've read.

-jcr

Re:Monetization

[SlashBugs]

Making money off of a disease which is very much kept in the vague, unclear, opaque situation is evil.
Where is the reproducible proof that HIV exists?
Where is the reproducible proof that HIV causes AIDS?

Go to the (American-run but internationally funded and popular) National Centre for Biotechnology Information here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez ...and type "HIV" into the search box. You'll get just under 192,000 peer-reviewd articles from groups all over the world, funded by various governments, public and private companies, charities and rich donors. Anything from HIV genome sequences and molecular sctructures through molecular biology, disease progression, transmission studies, all the way to local- regional- and global epidemiological studies. The evidence is pretty damn strong and well understood from the atomic level up to the global level.

Altenatively, click on the "Reviews" tab and it'll give you a mere 24,000 articles assessing, collating and criticising the others. Have fun!

True for HIV, True for HPV.
True for whatever.

When you've finsihsed the HIV evidence, feel free to look up the 15,000 HPV articles (or just 12,600 if you restrict your seach to "HPV AND cancer"). The HPV thing is actually very easy: most viruses carry genes evolved to push cells into their growth phase, because that forces the cells to release and synthesise resources that the virus must hijack to replicate. HPV-associated cancer happens when the viral gene gets incorporated into the cell's DNA (rare, but through well-established mechanisms) and get permanently switched on, making the cell grow and divide constantly. Any biology undergrad could tell you that if you asked. It's more common in the cervix simply because it's out of sight, and doesn't get noticed until it's really big and nasty. (Which is why all sexually actve women should be screened: catch it within the first 5 years and the cure rate is better than 98%. It's an easy cure if you *find* it)

THINK first. Do your research.

My undergraduate degree is in virology and I've just finished a PhD looking at how viruses interact with cancer and parts of the immune system. I've done plenty of thinking, and a hell of a lot o research. Now it's time for *you* to think, and for *you* to do some fucking research.

You're no better than the creatioists who say that evolution's impossible but have never botheres to get a fcuking clue how it actually works.

You know one kind of method for one kind of illnes

[Marrow]

I have had a bone marrow transplant. No radiation, minimal chemo-like drugs. In the hospital a week or a week and a half, 6 months of outpatient monitoring and I was cured.

For the AIDS treatment to work, they would most likely use something closer to my transplant protocol than the full oblation that they use with cancer patients.

Note to those interested: They dont have to go in with needles or drills to "dig out" the bone marrow from the donor. They give you a drug call the "G" that causes your bone marrow to percolate into your bloodstream. Then they filter it out with a dialysis-type procedure. Its fairly painless. I had it done to save my own marrow in case something went wrong with the transplant.

Quick answer

[PCM2]

STD cases are rising every year (NON-CUMULATIVE figures, of course), yet where are all the teenagers dying from 'AIDS'?

The fast answer is that HIV is not a highly contagious disease. In fact, compared to something like measles -- or HPV or active herpes -- it is actually quite difficult to catch HIV. The reason we focus so much attention on it, however, is because unlike herpes or genital warts, you die from it.

That is, until recently. Compared to 1981, we have quite a lot of experience treating AIDS. In fact, the clinical definition of AIDS an HIV-positive patient with fewer than 200 T-cells per cubic millimeter of blood. By definition, if we can stop your T-cells from dying, you don't get AIDS. (But if we stop treating you, you do.)

Other than that, it's 2008. To say that HIV does not cause AIDS at this late stage in the game is akin to denying evolution. The amount of scientific evidence linking HIV to AIDS is simply overwhelming.

I'm not at the tail end of a PhD in biology or anything close, but even I know this much. You do yourself a disservice by approaching scientific topics with blinkers on.