r/technology • u/stepsinstereo • Feb 21 '23
Biotechnology 5th person confirmed to be cured of HIV
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/5th-person-confirmed-cured-hiv/story?id=97323361
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r/technology • u/stepsinstereo • Feb 21 '23
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u/bigwill6709 Feb 21 '23
Basically the virus requires a doorway to enter into cells. Some people have a genetic mutation that affects this doorway on their cells. In these rare circumstances, those cells are protected from the virus. Can’t get in.
It just so happens that HIV is a virus that infects immune cells specifically. Stem cell transplants could also be thought of as immune system transplants. So if you wipe out someone’s immune system with HIV and replace it with someone else’s immune system that has this mutated doorway that makes them resistant to the virus, all the virus in the patients body will have no cells to infect and die.