CROI 2014: Tim Henrich with Richard Jefferys
Update on ‘the Boston Patients’, two men living with HIV that underwent bone marrow or stem cell transplantation. HIV negative donor cells were used for the transplantation and demonstrated as a proof of concept that giving chemotherapy followed by stem cell infusion could potentially lead to the loss of detectable HIV in the body. Thus far they have not been able to detect HIV in the Boston Patients even after looking deeply into cell. Individuals were asked to stop ARV therapy to see if HIV would return, and after weekly viral load monitoring found that one patient lasted 3-months before the virus returned and for the second patient 8-months before the virus returned. Normally virus from reservoirs resurges after only 1-month of treatment interruption. Future steps include looking into how to harness immune function that combats HIV during transplantation as methods for HIV control without the need for a full bone marrow transplant, which is not safe, easy or scalable for widespread treatment.