According to a recent report on the NBC website, a German man may have been "cured" of AIDS, and the uniqueness of this case provides important experience for the treatment of human HIV. In the more than 40 years since the AIDS epidemic, only six people have achieved such a treatment effect, except for this man. Scientists from the Medical School of Charité University of Berlin in Germany will present a related report at the 25th International AIDS Conference held in Munich on the 24th.

The German man received a stem cell transplant to treat acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in October 2015. He stopped taking antiretroviral drugs in September 2018 and remains in viral remission with no rebound. Multiple ultrasensitive tests have not detected active HIV in his system.

Experts warn that, like all previous potential HIV "cures," the treatment that thwarted the virus in the seven patients may only be available to a small number of people. All of them had blood cancers after contracting HIV and needed stem cell transplants to treat their malignancies. It is extremely dangerous to rashly offer stem cell transplants to HIV-infected people.

In five of the HIV "cures," the donors had a rare, natural defect in both copies of a specific gene. This gene produces the CCR5 protein on the surface of immune cells, to which most HIV strains attach to infect cells. Without a functional CCR5 protein, immune cells become resistant to HIV.

The German man's donor had only one copy of the CCR5 gene, meaning his immune cells likely contained about half the normal protein. In addition, he had only one copy of the gene himself. Together, these two genetic factors may have increased his chances of a cure.

Notably, a man treated in Geneva who was declared “cured” of HIV last year had two working copies of the CCR5 gene from a donor who had transplanted immune cells that were not resistant to HIV.

The two recent European cases have attracted huge attention because they may contain key factors that help humans successfully cure AIDS.

Everyone knows that HIV is very difficult to cure. Under standard antiretroviral treatment, immune cells will actively produce new viral copies, causing HIV to "come back" at any time. This is why once people infected with the virus stop taking medication, their viral load will rebound within a few weeks. Now, seven "cured people" have brought great hope to people. Through them, researchers are beginning to understand how the new immune system works successfully in patients and how it completely clears the HIV "viral reservoir" over time.