DNA Special: How bone marrow transplant has emerged as a ray of hope for AIDS cure?

Bone marrow is a substance found between bones that contains stem cells. When the bone marrow is defective, diseases like thalassemia, sickle cell anaemia, and leukaemia occur. To cure these diseases, the patient's bone marrow transplant is done.

Bone marrow transplant is needed in those diseases, when the bone marrow stops working. For bone marrow transplant, it is necessary that the patient's bone marrow matches with the donor's bone marrow.

It is also necessary to have a match of Human Leukocyte Antigen i.e. 'HLA'. HLA is a type of protein that controls the body's immune system. There is a 25 percent chance of 'HLA' being similar in your immediate siblings while parents have only one to three percent. When 'HLA' matches 100 percent, then doctors start preparing for its transplant.

Bone marrow transplant is a complex medical procedure in which damaged or destroyed stem cells are replaced with healthy bone marrow cells. It is of two types. Autologous and allogeneic.

Autologous: In this, stem cells are taken out from the patient's blood and kept safe. Then chemotherapy is given. After this the same stem cells are put back into the body.

Allogeneic: In this, first the stem cell of a family member is taken. The stem cells are inserted into the patient's body.

WHO's data shows that in 2021, 6,50,000 people died due to AIDS in the whole world. In 2021, 3,84,00,000 people had AIDS in the whole world. Marrow transplant appears to be a hope for life Till now, it was thought that AIDS was an incurable disease. But once again such a miracle has happened in the world which has started a new chapter in medical history. France's Pasteur Institute has claimed that a patient of HIV has been able to recover completely due to bone marrow stem cell transplant. This is the world's third patient cured of HIV by bone marrow transplant.

The patient who has won over HIV is a resident of Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2008, the patient came to know that he is HIV positive. After 3 years of which he also got blood cancer, which was identified as acute myeloid leukaemia. In 2013, doctors transplanted the bone marrow with the help of stem cells. This transplant became possible because of a female donor. The CCR5 mutation gene from the female donor completely prevented the disease from spreading through the body. The doctors were also surprised to see this. This is a kind of rare gene, which prevents HIV from spreading in the cells. After this the doctors decided in 2018 to stop the anti-retroviral therapy given for HIV after which this patient was monitored for 4 years and many tests were done. During this what the doctors saw was astonishing. The patient did not show any signs of HIV return.

Stem cell transplant was first used in 2007 to treat Timothy Ray Brown. Timothy is also known as the Berlin Patient. During that time, doctors had destroyed the dangerous cells of the bone marrow to cure leukaemia.