Timothy Ray Brown, 1st person cured of HIV, dies after cancer relapse

[admin]

He was cured of HIV while receiving cancer treatment over a decade ago.

Timothy Ray Brown, 1st person cured of HIV, dies after cancer relapse : Read more

 

[Chem721]

The is a very sad story of someone who went to great lengths to survive, but in the end could not fight off what must have been an aggressive leukemia cell line.

It is also a remarkable story regarding the use of CD4-deficient T-cells to cure him of the HIV infection. While this is not a practical cure for all those infected, it may represent a starting point. It seems that the ability to modify people's genes is growing substantially.

Now one has to wonder if (at some point) they could take an HIV infected patient's T-cells and reprogram them to operate without the CD-4 receptor. This would circumvent the need for irradiation to wipe out all the original T-cells which allows HIV to replicate, and still provide for an intact immune system to prevent the development of AIDS.

We should all hope that Timothy Ray Brown and his experience with medical science and technology will help us find new ways to eliminate HIV, and perhaps other viruses as well. We certainly could use the help!