<p>A second person is in sustained remission from HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, after ceasing treatment and is likely cured, researchers were set to announce at a medical conference on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Ten years after the first confirmed case of an HIV-infected person being rid of the deadly disease, a man knew only as the "London patient" has shown no sign of the virus for nearly 19 months, they reported in the journal Nature.</p>.<p>Both patients had received bone marrow transplants to treat blood cancers, receiving stem cells from donors with a rare genetic mutation that prevents HIV from taking hold.</p>.<p>"By achieving remission in a second patient using a similar approach, we have shown that the Berlin patient was not an anomaly," said lead author Ravindra Gupta, a professor at the University of Cambridge, referring to the first known functional cure.</p>.<p>Millions of people infected with HIV around the world keep the disease in check with so-called antiretroviral therapy (ARV), but the treatment does not rid patients of the virus.</p>.<p>"At the moment, the only way to treat HIV is with medications that suppress the virus, which people need to take for their entire lives," said Gupta.</p>.<p>"This poses a particular challenge in developing countries," where millions are still not receiving adequate treatment, he added.</p>.<p>Close to 37 million people are living with HIV worldwide, but only 59 per cent are receiving ARV. Nearly one million people die every year from HIV-related causes.</p>.<p>A new drug-resistant form of HIV is also a growing concern.</p>.<p>Gupta and his team emphasised that bone marrow transplant -- a dangerous and painful procedure -- is not a viable option for HIV treatment.</p>.<p>But the second instance of remission and likely cure following such a transplant will help scientists narrow the range of treatment strategies, he and others said.</p>.<p>"The second case strengthens the idea that a cure is feasible," Sharon R Lewin, director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the University of Melbourne, told AFP.</p>.<p>"We can try to tease out which part of the transplant might have made a difference here, and allowed this man to stop his anti-viral drugs."</p>.<p>The International AIDS Society said in a statement Tuesday that results from the second patient "reaffirm our belief that there exists a proof of concept that HIV is curable".</p>.<p>Both the London and Berlin patients received stem cell transplants from donors carrying a genetic mutation that prevents expression of an HIV receptor, known as CCR5.</p>.<p>"Finding a way to eliminate the virus entirely is an urgent global priority, but is particularly difficult because the virus integrates into the white blood cells of its host," Gupta explained.</p>.<p>The study describes an anonymous male patient in Britain who was diagnosed with HIV infection in 2003 and has been on antiretroviral therapy since 2012.</p>.<p>Later that year, he was diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin's Lymphoma, deadly cancer.</p>.<p>He underwent a so-called haematopoietic stem cell transplant in 2016 from a donor with two copies of a CCR5 gene variant, a combination carried by about one per cent of the world population.</p>.<p>CCR5 is the most commonly used receptor by HIV-1.</p>.<p>People who have two mutated copies of CCR5 are resistant to most HIV-1 virus strains, frustrating the virus' attempts to enter host cells.</p>.<p>As with cancer, chemotherapy can be effective against HIV as it kills cells that are dividing.</p>.<p>But replacing immune cells with those that do not have the CCR5 receptor appears to be key in preventing HIV from rebounding after the treatment.</p>.<p>After the bone marrow transplant, the London patient remained on ARV for 16 months, at which point ARV treatment was stopped.</p>.<p>Regular testing has confirmed that the patient's viral load remained undetectable since then.</p>.<p>Timothy Brown, the "Berlin patient", was given two transplants and underwent total body irradiation to treat leukaemia, while the British patient received just one transplant and less intensive chemotherapy.</p>.<p>"I did not want to be the only person in the world cured of HIV," Brown wrote in a medical journal in 2015, explaining why he decided to reveal his identity.</p>.<p>The research team for the London patient will present their findings at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle, Washington.</p>
<p>A second person is in sustained remission from HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, after ceasing treatment and is likely cured, researchers were set to announce at a medical conference on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Ten years after the first confirmed case of an HIV-infected person being rid of the deadly disease, a man knew only as the "London patient" has shown no sign of the virus for nearly 19 months, they reported in the journal Nature.</p>.<p>Both patients had received bone marrow transplants to treat blood cancers, receiving stem cells from donors with a rare genetic mutation that prevents HIV from taking hold.</p>.<p>"By achieving remission in a second patient using a similar approach, we have shown that the Berlin patient was not an anomaly," said lead author Ravindra Gupta, a professor at the University of Cambridge, referring to the first known functional cure.</p>.<p>Millions of people infected with HIV around the world keep the disease in check with so-called antiretroviral therapy (ARV), but the treatment does not rid patients of the virus.</p>.<p>"At the moment, the only way to treat HIV is with medications that suppress the virus, which people need to take for their entire lives," said Gupta.</p>.<p>"This poses a particular challenge in developing countries," where millions are still not receiving adequate treatment, he added.</p>.<p>Close to 37 million people are living with HIV worldwide, but only 59 per cent are receiving ARV. Nearly one million people die every year from HIV-related causes.</p>.<p>A new drug-resistant form of HIV is also a growing concern.</p>.<p>Gupta and his team emphasised that bone marrow transplant -- a dangerous and painful procedure -- is not a viable option for HIV treatment.</p>.<p>But the second instance of remission and likely cure following such a transplant will help scientists narrow the range of treatment strategies, he and others said.</p>.<p>"The second case strengthens the idea that a cure is feasible," Sharon R Lewin, director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the University of Melbourne, told AFP.</p>.<p>"We can try to tease out which part of the transplant might have made a difference here, and allowed this man to stop his anti-viral drugs."</p>.<p>The International AIDS Society said in a statement Tuesday that results from the second patient "reaffirm our belief that there exists a proof of concept that HIV is curable".</p>.<p>Both the London and Berlin patients received stem cell transplants from donors carrying a genetic mutation that prevents expression of an HIV receptor, known as CCR5.</p>.<p>"Finding a way to eliminate the virus entirely is an urgent global priority, but is particularly difficult because the virus integrates into the white blood cells of its host," Gupta explained.</p>.<p>The study describes an anonymous male patient in Britain who was diagnosed with HIV infection in 2003 and has been on antiretroviral therapy since 2012.</p>.<p>Later that year, he was diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin's Lymphoma, deadly cancer.</p>.<p>He underwent a so-called haematopoietic stem cell transplant in 2016 from a donor with two copies of a CCR5 gene variant, a combination carried by about one per cent of the world population.</p>.<p>CCR5 is the most commonly used receptor by HIV-1.</p>.<p>People who have two mutated copies of CCR5 are resistant to most HIV-1 virus strains, frustrating the virus' attempts to enter host cells.</p>.<p>As with cancer, chemotherapy can be effective against HIV as it kills cells that are dividing.</p>.<p>But replacing immune cells with those that do not have the CCR5 receptor appears to be key in preventing HIV from rebounding after the treatment.</p>.<p>After the bone marrow transplant, the London patient remained on ARV for 16 months, at which point ARV treatment was stopped.</p>.<p>Regular testing has confirmed that the patient's viral load remained undetectable since then.</p>.<p>Timothy Brown, the "Berlin patient", was given two transplants and underwent total body irradiation to treat leukaemia, while the British patient received just one transplant and less intensive chemotherapy.</p>.<p>"I did not want to be the only person in the world cured of HIV," Brown wrote in a medical journal in 2015, explaining why he decided to reveal his identity.</p>.<p>The research team for the London patient will present their findings at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Seattle, Washington.</p>