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Virology Research Journal | Volume 2
allied
academies
May 18-19, 2018 | Montreal, Canada
2
nd
World Conference on
STDs, STIs & HIV/AIDS
I
n 2007, a patient who was infected with HIV and who also
had acute myelogenous leukemia received a hematopoietic
cell transplant using stem cells from an adult donor who had
a homozygous CCR5 mutation (CCR5-/-). Persons with this
mutation are known to be resistant to infection by HIV and,
indeed, the patient was cured of his HIV as well as the leukemia.
This patient remains the only person to have been cured of HIV.
This cure has not been repeated because the CCR5-/- mutation
is very unusual and transplants using stem cells from adults
require a very close HLA match between donor and patient.
Cord blood transplants require significantly less stringent HLA
matching, and thus it is more feasible to transplant HIV-infected
patients with CCR5-/- donor cells from cord blood. Inventories
of hundreds of cryopreserved CCR5-/- cord blood units have
been developed and are now available for transplantation.
Further, an estimated 800,000 cryopreserved cord blood units
exist worldwidewhich indicates that transplantationwith CCR5-
/- cord blood units is feasible for large numbers of patients.
Cure of HIV is very important because even patients who are
adequately treated with antiretroviral drugs for HIV are not
protected from important adverse effects of long-standing
HIV infection. This is also economically beneficial because the
estimated lifetime cost for persons who become infected with
HIV at age 35 is $326,500. A rigidly held opinion by many is that
patients with HIV should not be transplantedwith intent to cure
the infection unless they also have an underlying indication for a
transplant such as leukemia. However, even in this antiretroviral
era, thousands of patients die of HIV annually. The time has
come to accelerate research on this topic of tremendous public
health potential including transplantation of CCR5-defective
cells, especially those derived from cord blood.
Speaker Biography
Petz Lawrence serves as Chief Medical Officer of StemCyte, Inc. He serves as a Co-
Medical Director of StemCyte International Cord Blood Center (US) of StemCyte, Inc.
He is a founder and organizer of the annual International Symposium on Cord Blood
Transplantation. He served as a Director of Transfusion medicine and Professor of
pathology and laboratory medicine of UCLA Medical Center. He served as Section
Head of Hematology and Director of the Department of Clinical and Experimental
Immunology of City of Hope National Medical Center. He served as Chairman of
Advisory Board of StemCyte, Inc. He has received almost all the highest honors in
transfusion medicine, including the Emily Cooley Award and Morten Grove-Rasmussen
Memorial Award from the American Association of Blood Banks, the Transfusion
Medicine Academic Award from National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the Owen
Thomas Award from the California Blood Bank Society. He received Tibor Greenwalt
Memorial Award and Lectureship for 2006. He is a Diplomate in Internal Medicine and
subspecialty board Diplomate in Hematology.
e:
lpetz@stemcyte.comPetz Lawrence
StemCyte, Inc USA
Curing HIV with cord blood transplantation