News broke earlier this week that an anonymous HIV-positive British man has become the second person ever to be in long-term remission of the disease, according to a recently released study in the journal Nature.
The “London patient,” as he is referenced in the study, received a bone marrow transplant about three years ago as part of his treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The donor marrow had a malfunctioning CC5 gene, which has shown resistance to HIV. Now, three years later, the London patient no longer shows any signs of HIV.
President Donald Trump praised the announcement, tweeting, "'HIV Is Cured In 2nd Patient, Doctors Report.' @nytimes Such great news for so many. Tremendous progress being made!"
Art Caplan, the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty chair, the director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, and the co-host of the Everyday Ethics podcast, warned against thinking a viable HIV cure is around the corner. Caplan said Boston Public Radio Wednesday that he does not believe bone marrow transplants will be the end of AIDS.
Caplan said that trying to replicate the London patient’s success in other HIV patients would not be practical.
“It is hard to predict those genes, that’s why you can’t really run around doing bone marrow transplants all day," he said. "A lot of people would die from them. They are awful to have to go through."
Caplan emphasized that while the London patient may be in remission, that does not necessarily mean he is cured. “There is no virus detectable, but it doesn't mean it's not hiding somewhere in his body and won’t come back,” Caplan said.
Ravindra Gupta, the leader of the study, told Reuters that his team will now research the CC5 gene and look into the use of gene therapy in their search for a cure to HIV.
