HIV reappears in two Boston patients thought to be cured

After discontinuing the use of antiretroviral drugs and seeing no signs of HIV for months, two men who were thought to be cured of the virus have seen their infections reappear, The Boston Globe reports.

Known as the “Boston patients,” the men underwent bone-marrow transplants— one in 2008, the other in 2010 — with cells that were not genetically resistant to the HIV infection as part of treatment for blood cancer lymphoma. Eight months after their transplants, the virus was undetectable.

In July, HIV specialists Timothy Henrich and Deniel Kuritzkes at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston reported that they could not trace the virus in either man, raising hope for a cure. But in August, scientists detected the virus again in one of the patients. Nearly three months later, the virus reappeared in the other patient’s blood.

Calling the developments a “disappointment,” Henrich said that cells carrying the genetic code for HIV — “reservoirs” — could have been hiding elsewhere in the patients’ bodies.

“Through this research, we have discovered the HIV reservoir is deeper and more persistent than previously known,” he said in a statement, “and that our current standards of probing for HIV may not be sufficient to inform us if long-term HIV remission is possible if antiretroviral therapy is stopped.”

Timothy Ray Brown, known as the “Berlin Patient,” is the only person thought to be cured of HIV. In 2007, he had a stem cell transplant with HIV-resistant cells to treat his leukemia.

In March, researchers announced that an HIV-positive baby in Mississippi had been cured of the virus, receiving treatment within 30 hours of her birth.