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A stem cell transplant from umbilical cord blood has induced HIV remission in a mixed-race woman, BTA reports. 

The woman, dubbed the "New York patient," has been undetectable HIV since 2017 after HIV-resistant stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood were used to treat her leukemia. 

Stem cells are produced in the bone marrow and can become different types of blood cells.

They cured a patient of HIV and cancer with stem cells

Several people are now in remission from HIV after receiving stem cells from adult donors who carry two copies of a naturally occurring CCR5 gene mutation.

This mutation prevents the virus from entering healthy cells and infecting them.

In a stem cell transplant, recipients can only receive a donation from people with matching tissue types to reduce the risk of their immune system attacking the transplanted tissue.

Because tissue types are inherited, a person's ethnicity affects the ability to find compatible tissues.

Having two copies of the CCR5 mutation is rare, occurring in only about 1% of people of Northern European descent and even less common in other populations.

To overcome the lack of suitable adult donors, doctors infused the patient's umbilical cord blood from New York.

She also received stem cells from a relative.

Umbilical cord blood can contain fewer stem cells than an adult's blood, so mixing it with stem cells from a relative gives it a jumpstart, explains Yvonne Bryson of the University of California, Los Angeles, who co-authored the study.

Using cord blood makes it easier to find suitable transplant partners because there are large repositories of frozen samples donated by women who have given birth in hospitals, says Jinmei Hsu of New York Presbyterian Hospital. 

Most people with HIV can reduce the amount of virus in their blood to undetectable levels by taking antiretroviral drugs that stop it from multiplying in their body.

Therefore, a stem cell transplant is only considered for people with HIV and advanced blood cancers that can be treated with the procedure.

The patient from New York no longer needs antiretroviral drugs, and her leukemia is in remission.

A transplant involves using chemotherapy and sometimes radiation therapy to destroy a person's red blood cells, then infusing them with a donor's stem cells.

The recipient is given immunosuppressants to reduce the risk of their immune system rejecting the transplant, which increases the chance of infections.

Mario Stevenson of the University of Miami, Florida, says it takes several months for the donor's stem cells to replicate in the recipient's blood cells.

This window is very high risk for the patient.

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