A sixth person, dubbed the “Geneva patient,” may be free of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant intended to treat another disease—his cancer. Is an anti-inflammatory drug behind his recovery, instead?
Now researchers want to know whether ruxolitinib played a role in his recovery. Preliminary data presented at the conference by Emory University researchers bolsters the case for the drug: In a trial of 60 HIV patients on antiretrovirals, 40 of them were also given ruxolitinib for five weeks and followed for an additional seven weeks. Researchers then measured their viral reservoirs—groups of HIV-infected immune cells that lay dormant in the body.
In a press briefing, Alexandra Calmy, the head of the HIV/AIDS unit at the Geneva University Hospitals who was involved with the patient’s care, speculated that the drug “may have an impact of reducing the reservoir and the absence of viral rebound.” Based on the rate of reservoir decay shown in the Emory study, the researchers estimate that ruxolitinib could clear nearly all viral reservoirs in about three years. But all it takes for a rebound is for one viral particle to remain active, replicate, and infect the body once again.
Jana Dickter, an infectious disease specialist at City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California, calls the Geneva patient’s remission “exciting and novel,” although it’s still possible that his viral load may rebound in the future. Dickter was a member of the team that treated Paul Edmonds, the. “The therapy ruxolitinib is thought to affect the immune system‘s response to HIV and the HIV reservoir, where HIV can persist in dormant cells for many years,” she says.
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