RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A woman could be the first person in the world to be cured of HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) without the use of medication. Infected in 1992, the American patient did not need a bone marrow transplant and did not take any medication to be cured, according to a study published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.
The research points out that there is a new mechanism through which the body is able to suppress the virus, something that can only now be identified due to progress in the area of genetics.
Patient Loreen Willenberg, aged 66, had approximately 1.5 billion blood cells analyzed, precisely because she was able to cure herself from HIV with no medication – only two people, besides her, were considered cured from AIDS, but both of them underwent transplants because of cancer conditions.
The HIV virus is still present in Willenberg’s body, but it cannot reproduce or infect new cells. In her case, her own body managed to control the virus, something that only 0.5 percent of people with AIDS are capable of doing.
The reason is that she is part of a group that doctors refer to as “elite controllers”, people who are able to suppress the virus without the use of drugs. Elite controllers have an immune response based on T cells and manage to reduce the viral load until it becomes undetectable.
Willenberg was thus considered cured for presenting the lowest level of viral load among 63 other patients analyzed by the study – albeit present, they were unable to reproduce.
In Brazil, a research conducted by the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) identified a super-therapy that may cure AIDS in the long run.
The research was conducted with 30 volunteers with an undetectable viral load, under standard treatment, with a combination of three types of antiretrovirals, the well-known “cocktail”. The trial volunteers were split into six subgroups that were given different combinations of drugs, in addition to the cocktail.
To the members of the subgroup that presented the best results so far, two other antiretroviral drugs were administered: Dolutegravir, the strongest drug currently available on the market, and Maraviroc, a substance that forces the once concealed virus to surface.
Further research on this “cure” should be conducted before it reaches the market, but the results are encouraging.
Source: Exame