[ti:First Woman Is Reported Cured of HIV]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]A patient in the United States with the disease leukemia
[00:04.20]has become the first woman to be cured of HIV,
[00:08.44]the virus that causes AIDS.
[00:11.56]The patient received stem cells from a donor.
[00:15.48]Stem cells are special cells that can become any kind of cell in the body.
[00:21.44]The donor was naturally resistant to HIV,
[00:25.44]researchers told reporters Tuesday.
[00:28.84]The woman has been described as a 64-year-old woman of mixed race.
[00:33.92]Her case was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses
[00:38.52]and Opportunistic Infections in Denver, Colorado.
[00:43.24]It is the first case involving the use of blood from the umbilical cord.
[00:48.16]The umbilical cord connects a pregnant mother to her fetus.
[00:53.44]Use of umbilical blood is a somewhat new method.
[00:58.24]Doctors are considering making the treatment available to more people.
[01:03.72]The woman had been receiving the umbilical cord blood to treat her leukemia.
[01:08.88]Leukemia is a cancer that starts in blood-forming cells in bones.
[01:15.12]Since receiving the treatment, the woman has been in remission.
[01:19.28]She has been free of HIV for 14 months.
[01:23.52]She has not needed HIV treatments known as antiretroviral therapy.
[01:30.20]The two earlier cases in which patients were cured
[01:33.84]happened in males who had received adult stem cells.
[01:37.96]Adult stem cells are often used in bone marrow transplants.
[01:43.64]"This is now the third report of a cure in this setting,
[01:47.44]and the first in a woman living with HIV," said Sharon Lewin in a statement.
[01:54.12]She is soon to be the head of the International AIDS Society.
[01:59.12]The woman's case is part of a larger study
[02:02.36]led by Dr. Yvonne Bryson of the University of California Los Angeles,
[02:07.52]and Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
[02:13.44]It is being financially supported by the U.S. government.
[02:18.36]The study aims to follow 25 people with HIV
[02:22.20]who receive a transplant with stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood
[02:28.08]for the treatment of cancer and other serious conditions.
[02:32.96]Patients in the study first receive treatment to destroy cancerous cells.
[02:39.04]Doctors then transplant stem cells from individuals with a genetic mutation
[02:45.36]which makes them resistant to HIV.
[02:48.44]Scientists believe the patients receiving the transplant
[02:52.60]will develop an immune system resistant to HIV.
[02:57.80]Lewin said bone marrow transplants do not cure most people living with HIV.
[03:04.44]But she said the report "confirms that a cure for HIV is possible
[03:09.96]and further strengthens using gene therapy" as an effective way to cure HIV.
[03:17.28]The study suggests that an important part of the treatment's success
[03:22.00]was using HIV-resistant cells.
[03:25.80]"Taken together, these three cases of a cure post stem cell transplant
[03:31.28]all help" in discovering the parts of the transplant
[03:34.92]that were important to a cure, Lewin said.
[03:39.16]I'm Dan Novak. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM