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A middle-aged, mixed-race woman is the third patient to be potentially cured of HIV, with the virus in long-term remission four years after she received a transplant of stem cells harvested from an infant’s umbilical cord blood, scientists said Tuesday. The new case, reported at the annual meeting of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection, is the first time the transplant approach has been successfully reported in a mixed-race woman, an advance that reinforces the exciting concept that an HIV cure may be possible in a wider array of people by using cord blood. (Johnson, 2/15)

"This case is special for several reasons: First, our participant was a U.S. woman living with HIV of mixed race, who needed a stem cell transplant for treatment of her leukemia. And she would find a more difficult time finding both a genetic match and one with the HIV-resistant mutation to both cure her cancer and potentially her HIV. This is a natural, but rare mutation," said Dr. Yvonne Bryson, an infectious disease physician at UCLA who led the study. (Morrison and Salzman, 2/15)

Cord blood is more widely available than the adult stem cells used in the bone marrow transplants that cured the previous two patients, and it does not need to be matched as closely to the recipient. Most donors in registries are of Caucasian origin, so allowing for only a partial match has the potential to cure dozens of Americans who have both H.I.V. and cancer each year, scientists said. The woman, who also had leukemia, received cord blood to treat her cancer. It came from a partially matched donor, instead of the typical practice of finding a bone marrow donor of similar race and ethnicity to the patient’s. She also received blood from a close relative to give her body temporary immune defenses while the transplant took. (Mandavilli, 2/15)

It is unethical, experts stress, to attempt an HIV cure through a stem cell transplant — a toxic, sometimes fatal procedure — in anyone who does not have a potentially fatal cancer or other condition that already makes them a candidate for such risky treatment. (Ryan, 2/15)

In a large clinical trial assessing Apretude, ViiV Healthcare’s recently approved injectable drug, as a form of HIV prevention, seven participants contracted the virus despite receiving their injections on schedule. The new findings indicate that, just as with those who take daily pills to prevent HIV, breakthrough infections are possible among people receiving Apretude. (Ryan, 2/15)

Booster doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines revive antibody levels in people with HIV and response to a booster dose is not affected by CD4 count, Italian researchers reported at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2022) this week. But at the conference's opening session, vaccine researcher Professor Dan Barouch questioned whether a strategy of relying on repeated boosters will be either necessary or feasible. He also called for a focus on the whole of the immune response, not just antibodies, when considering which vaccines to use and when boosters should be offered. (Alcorn, 2/15)