Overview
- The Oslo University Hospital team reports the patient has stayed off antiretroviral therapy for years with no detectable virus and says he is, for practical purposes, cured.
- The man received a bone marrow transplant from his brother, whose cells carried two copies of the CCR5Δ32 mutation that blocks HIV from entering immune cells.
- Donor cells fully took over the patient’s immune system, including in the lower gut, which is a common hiding place for latent HIV.
- Extensive checks, including tests on more than 65 million T cells and samples from blood, bone marrow, and gut, found no intact, replication‑competent virus as HIV antibodies waned.
- The transplant was done to treat a severe bone marrow disorder and came with major risks, including a bout of graft‑versus‑host disease, and researchers say such cures are rare and call for pooled case data to guide safer strategies.