A cure for AIDS has been discovered, if only for one person.
After receiving a bone marrow transplant from an individual with a genetic immunity to the disease — about one percent of Caucasians carry such an immunity — Timothy Ray Brown, also known as The Berlin Patient, stopped taking his AIDS medication, and he hasn’t had to take them since. “I’m cured of HIV,” he says. “I had HIV, and I don’t any more.”
The helper T cells which is from the bone marrow transplant further activate and direct other immune cells to fight the disease. HIV specifically attacks helper T cells, making the body unable to launch a counter offensive against invaders.
Hence, AIDS patients suffer from other lethal infections.
“While Mr. Brown remains without any sign of HIV infection,” they wrote. Brown has quit taking his HIV medication. The secret is that if the white cells could be manipulated to a state in which they are no longer infected or infectable by HIV that would mean a functional cure.
Researchers, however, have warned that though the study offers promise, it is not a surefire cure from the dreaded disease — transplants are risky, and this involved a very rare transplant. Brown is a rather lucky man. He said in a recent interview that appeared in the San Francisco media about his cure: “It makes me very happy — very, very happy.”
After receiving a bone marrow transplant from an individual with a genetic immunity to the disease — about one percent of Caucasians carry such an immunity — Timothy Ray Brown, also known as The Berlin Patient, stopped taking his AIDS medication, and he hasn’t had to take them since. “I’m cured of HIV,” he says. “I had HIV, and I don’t any more.”
The helper T cells which is from the bone marrow transplant further activate and direct other immune cells to fight the disease. HIV specifically attacks helper T cells, making the body unable to launch a counter offensive against invaders.
Hence, AIDS patients suffer from other lethal infections.
“While Mr. Brown remains without any sign of HIV infection,” they wrote. Brown has quit taking his HIV medication. The secret is that if the white cells could be manipulated to a state in which they are no longer infected or infectable by HIV that would mean a functional cure.
Researchers, however, have warned that though the study offers promise, it is not a surefire cure from the dreaded disease — transplants are risky, and this involved a very rare transplant. Brown is a rather lucky man. He said in a recent interview that appeared in the San Francisco media about his cure: “It makes me very happy — very, very happy.”