Two patients, known as Ascent and Kansas City, will be presented as the 12th and 13th cases of HIV cure or prolonged remission after stem cell transplants during an international AIDS conference in Rio de Janeiro.
The information was anticipated by immunologist Christian Gaebler, from Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, during a pre-conference. The cases will be detailed in a session dedicated to HIV cure on Wednesday (29).
Gaebler stated that patient Ascent will be number 12 and the one from Kansas City number 13, describing the results as really fascinating. No additional clinical details about the Kansas City patient were revealed.
All 13 cured or in remission patients also had leukemia or another hematological cancer that required the transplant, a high-risk procedure indicated only for fatal diseases. The first recorded case was that of Timothy Ray Brown, the Berlin patient, in 2009.
Researchers are investigating additional mechanisms, such as neutralizing antibodies, that may contribute to virus control without the full CCR5-delta32 mutation.
