Update on the Buenos Aires patient.

[Jim Allen]

I think most of us who have been living with HIV for a while might be aware of this story already. The Buenos Aires patient was diagnosed in 1996, stopped treatment in 2007.

There is an update to the story and all I can say is it's great for the individual, continue to wish them well. However, this truly is a single unique case, with any illness that's to be expected and maybe someday we understand how and why and if that could benefit others. In the meantime, ill keep taking meds. 

In Brief:

The Buenos Aires patient: Argentinian woman controls HIV for at least 12 years after stopping treatment

In 2015, and again in 2017, the woman visited the US National Institutes of Health near Washington DC to undergo clinical investigations. Researchers carried out blood tests and sampled lymphoid tissue from the gut and other lymph nodes, as well as cerebrospinal fluid. They compared their findings with samples from an HIV-negative control group and people with chronic HIV infection.

They found:

HIV RNA (viral load) in plasma was below 0.2 copies/ml (the limit of detection on the most sensitive test available) and HIV RNA was not detectable in any lymphoid tissue samples. In people with chronic infection or long-term non-progressors, HIV would be detectable

No HIV DNA was detectable in colon tissue or blood mononuclear cells, but HIV DNA was detected at a very low level in lymph node tissue.

Replication-competent HIV was detected at a “profoundly small” level in CD4 T-cells.
No antibodies to HIV could be detected.

HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses that would indicate the presence of HIV were feeble but HIV-specific CD4+ responses were higher than in HIV-negative controls.

To confirm that her HIV diagnosis in 1996 had not been a false-positive diagnosis, the researchers also looked at a stored sample of brain tissue obtained by biopsy in 1996 to help diagnose the woman’s neurological condition. This sample contained HIV DNA, although no HIV RNA, and confirms that the woman did have HIV infection in 1996.

Full story - Adidsmap.com
https://www.aidsmap.com/news/feb-2021/buenos-aires-patient-argentinian-woman-controls-hiv-least-12-years-after-stopping

[Kangaroo]

There's a group of people who can have VL undetectable without ART, but this group represent around 0,1% of the universe living with the virus.

A recent research (I'm gonna look for it and post here), in Central Republic of Congo, showed that 2,4% of people living with HIV1 belonged to this group there. Researchers are trying to find out if it is due to the person DNA or if it is about a lower infective virus variation.

[Jim Allen]

There's a group of people who can have VL undetectable without ART, but this group represent around 0,1% of the universe living with the virus.

A recent research (I'm gonna look for it and post here), in Central Republic of Congo, showed that 2,4% of people living with HIV1 belonged to this group there. Researchers are trying to find out if it is due to the person DNA or if it is about a lower infective virus variation.

Hiya.

I know the publication you are thinking about and it's on elite controllers, that is a different topic. The Buenos Aires patient is different from this group and so far unique.

There have been a few studies into elite controllers, also a few threads but we can open another one, this group has long believed to be a pathway to a functional cure one day with a number of studies into their genes. Although, even this group is recommended to take treatment to prevent issues.

Best, Jim.