HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus the cause of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) has been plaguing the world for decades. Since the time this epidemic dawned more than 36 million people have died of HIV. According to the latest data around 35 million people in the world are currently affected. Most of them belong to the developing countries where there is a great dearth of medical care.
A guy named Timothy Ray Brown famously known “The Berlin Patient” is the only lucky guy who was declared cured back in 2008. What worked for Timothy, lets find out.
Meet Timothy Ray Brown who was diagnosed with HIV positive in 1995.
He began taking anti-HIV medication or antiretroviral therapy. Basically, the HIV treatment contains a cocktail of three drugs that target various HIV stages and its life cycle. The medication needs to be started immediately because HIV mutates rapidly and becomes resistant to any drug on later stages.
In 2006 he had been diagnosed with acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and the HIV RNA was untraceable too. The doctors concluded that two conditions were unrelated. Chemotherapy was introduced for treatment of cancer that proved toxic and affected Brown badly and he had to stop antiviral drugs which replicated viral cells. The antiviral drugs were reintroduced. Sadly, the cancer came back after few months.
In 2008, Brown was fighting two most dangerous diseases in the world HIV and cancer. The doctors decided to perform and experimental procedure and transplanted two stem cells from an unrelated donor who happened to be possessing a unique mutation which generally results in the smaller than normal receptor and does not localize outside cells.
Note that the homozygous individuals who carry two copies of this mutation are specifically immune to HIV because they cant penetrate the target cells. The doctors were wondering whether the replacement would work or not and to their greatest surprise it worked for Brown and was declared HIV-Free His treatment is known as “functional cure”.
Sharon Stone poses with Timothy Ray Brown at the “3rd Annual Kiehl’s Since 1851 LifeRide For amfAR” at Georgetown on July 20, 2012, in Washington, DC.
Recently, the participants at a Community HIV Cure Research Workshop on February 12, in advance of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle, held a “birthday” party for Timothy Ray Brown — formerly known as the Berlin Patient — to celebrate 10 years since the bone marrow transplant that would lead to the only known cure for HIV.
