July 27, 2012 Studies detailing three different approaches are
offering hope that a cure for AIDS is on the horizon. All
involve procedures or treatments that are already in use, but
await further research to see if they can deliver as a cure.
Stem-cell transplantation, an expensive procedure with its own
risks, was the method used for the only person believed to have
been cured of HIV infection. Timothy Brown received the
treatment in Germany for leukemia. His physician purposefully
chose a donor who carried a rare mutation that made cells
resistant to HIV infection. When Brown recovered, he had no
detectable virus. In research presented Thursday to the 19th
International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Washington, two other
similar cases involved lymphoma patients. The chemotherapy they
had received was less aggressive than that given Brown, and more
of their immune cells remained. The transplanted cells appear to
have tracked down these cells, some of which were HIV-infected,
and destroyed them in a reaction call