Male leukemia infected with AIDS virus, stem cell transplantation prevents the virus from being found in the blood

The other day at GIGAZINEThe development of a revolutionary new drug that promotes self-destruction by promoting mutation of AIDS virusI told you that when a man infected with the AIDS virus received stem cell transplantation, it seems that it became clear that no virus was found from the blood.

It seems to attract attention as a new approach to treatment, but what is the reason for it?

Details are as follows.
Man displayed free of HIV after stem cell transplant - CNN.com

According to this article, a 42-year-old leukemia male infected with HIV has received stem cell transplantation for the treatment of leukemia. And two years after undergoing stem cell transplantation, it is said that no virus has been detected from the blood of men and drug treatment is not received either.

As a background to this result, it is mentioned that when selecting research donors to provide stem cells, the research team chose a person who has a mutated gene called "CCR5 delta 32" .

"CCR5 delta 32" is retained by 1 to 3% of Caucasians living in Europe, people with this mutation have a deficiency in the receptor (receptor) on the cell surface "CCR5", so " It is said that it does not infect infectious AIDS virus using CCR 5.

Although this method seems to be epoch - making for the treatment of HIV, in stem cell transplantation, one of three people has to do transplant after deliberately destroying the immune system of the patient, so one In addition to the extremely high risk of death in the process of transplantation, there is an opinion that it may only be latent in other types of cells although AIDS virus can not be detected from the blood That's right.

Moreover, from many research results learned from this patient, it is said that a method to change "CCR 5" more safely may be visible within 5 years.