Medical researchers have found a new way fight HIV/AIDS by using bone marrow treatment and cell engineering. The so-called Berlin patient opened a new hope towards possible cure and end the war against a worldwide epidemic.

Timothy Brown's Victorious Treatment

Timothy Brown, an HIV-positive patient, received two bone marrow transplants in 2007 and 2008 to treat his leukaemia. His bone marrow donor was among the 1 per cent of Northern Europeans naturally resistant to HIV infection due to the lack of CCR5 protein on the surface of immune cells which the virus uses as an entry point. The CCR5 absence is a rare genetic mutation which made Mr. Brown free of the deadly virus till now.

His own immune system has been replaced by a new set with natural resistance against HIV which freed from the virus for about four years even if the procedure is gruelling, risky and expensive.

Using the CCR5 Mutation as a Cure

Individuals with CCR5 genetic mutation are very difficult to immunologically match between the donor and the host. Scientists are figuring out how to modify a patient's own immune cells to make them resistant to HIV by eliminating the CCR5.

This method has been applied to a 50-year-old man in Trenton. Some of his white blood cells were removed from his body and treated with a gene therapy developed by Sangamo BioSciences by inducing cells to produce proteins that can disrupt the CCR5.

Treated cells were then infused back into the man's body, and right before his 12-week period, his HIV count reached the undetectable level and his immune cell began to go up again.

The Trenton man felt he was like Superman after he stopped taking antiretroviral drugs due to the side effects such as fatigue.

"It is only one individual, but it is a remarkable result. At 12 weeks, you cannot say that this therapy works and the patient is controlling it by himself. Amazing," said Dr Pable Tebas, professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who treated the man.

Timothy Brown's significant and surprising result gave hope for a cure and raises development for more methods to treat both HIV and blood cancers.

Timothy Brown currently resides in San Francisco, California.