An American in Berlin, Germany, is celebrating a good bill of health right now. While that’s wonderful, the circumstances through which Timothy Ray Brown earned his good health are spectacular. Not only did Brown beat leukemia, he also beat HIV. Timothy Ray Brown’s HIV has been cured after a bone marrow stem cell transplant and significant chemotherapy.
The crucial combination of things that cured Timothy Ray Brown’s HIV are pretty tough to replicate. For one, Timothy Brown’s donor has a genetic condition called CCR5 delta 32 homozygosity, which means his CD4 immune system cells lack CCR5 receptors. CCR5 is what typically allows HIV to bond with host cells. Furthermore, Brown went through chemotherapy (which killed most of his immune cells) and immunosuppression therapy (which prevented his body from rejecting the bone marrow transplant).
“In the right place, at the right time” is how Brown’s physician, Gero Hutter, describes the circumstances of the treatment of Brown’s leukemia and HIV. Dr. Hutter added, “For me it is important to have overthrown the dogma that HIV can never be cured. Something like this is the greatest thing one can achieve in medical research.”
Tags: Timothy Ray Brown, HIV cured by stem cell transplant, leukemia, stem cell transplant cures HIV, bone marrow transplant cures man’s HIV, CCR5, CCR5 delta 32 homozygosity, CD4 cells, Berlin, Germany, Gero Hutter
