Did Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant Help Cure A Woman's HIV infection?

A woman in the New York City area appears to have been cured of an HIV infection, Wall Street Journal reported, providing a roadmap that could help researchers who are developing gene therapies to cure HIV.

• According to the woman's doctor, there were no detectable signs of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since she stopped antiretroviral treatment in October 2020 following a transplant of stem cells with a rare genetic mutation that blocks HIV invasion.
• The doctors said they consider her HIV to be in long-term remission, suggesting a cure if it holds. 
• "Everything is looking very promising," said Marshall Glesby, associate chief of the division of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian, who is treating the woman. 
• The woman, who had a form of leukemia, received a transplant of stem cells from an adult relative and umbilical-cord blood from a newborn to whom she wasn't related. 
• The woman was treated as a part of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. 
• Cord-blood transplants take up to 30 days to graft, Dr. Van Besien added. But the doctors supplemented it with a transplant of stem cells from one of the woman's adult relatives, which grafted faster. 
• Within 100 days, the patient's blood cells were derived from the HIV-resistant cord-blood cells, the doctors said.
• In reaction to the report, Global Cord Blood Corp CO shares are trading 0.72% at $4.22 during the market session on the last check Tuesday.
• Global Cord Blood is China's first and largest umbilical cord blood banking operator. It provides cord blood collection, laboratory testing, hematopoietic stem cell processing, and storage services.