IciStem is a collaborative project to guide and investigate the potential for HIV cure in HIV-infected patients requiring allogeneic stem cell transplantation for hematological disorders.
The IciStem consortium is composed of an expert European review panel of hematologists with experience in allogeneic SCT procedures along with infectious disease specialists, virologist and immunologists with expertise in the field of HIV-1 tropism, reservoirs and cure.
We prospectively study allogeneic SCT recipients with HIV-1 infection, collecting complete information on underlying malignancy, chemotherapy, transplant procedure, donor selection, HIV-tropism, cART, and virological and immunological characteristics of a variety of samples before and after the transplant.
IciStem investigates systematically the HIV reservoir in people with HIV who either had or may get an allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Each individual with HIV registered at the IciStem program participates in a local study led by his/her treating physicians. IciStem advises systematic collection of clinical data and blood, tissue and CSF samples before and after the stem cell transplantation. Read more here.
The sixth person, also known as the Geneva patient (Nr. 34 in the IciStem cohort) with long term remission of HIV-1 infection after receiving a stem cell transplant. The 53-years-old male living in Switzerland who was diagnosed to be HIV-1 positive since 1990 and diagnosed with myeloid sarcoma in 2018 has undergo a stem cell transplant in hope to cure from both diseases. Now six years later, there is no HIV detected in the plasma. The Geneva patient has received stem cells from a donor without a CCR-5 mutation but has taken a specific drug called a Jak-inhibitor which may have altered the immune response to HIV
February 2023: Cure of IciStem participant #19 The Düsseldorf patient