Author: Aldanova Aziza
Translated by: Yurankyzy Saltanat
Stem cells are one of the most relevant topics for humanity. They have proven themselves as the beginning of a new path in medicine since 1909, opening up opportunities for new research to many scientists. Stem cells manifest themselves in bone marrow transplantation, organ cultivation, infertility control, cancer treatment, and many other areas. Every year, properties such as self-renewal and differentiation into specialized cells open up new horizons and increase the use of stem cells in all areas of medicine and Biomedicine.
In 2001, a 34-year-old man was diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The patient was regularly treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (Vaart), and in 2005 he was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia. Then the doctors decided to treat him by allogeneic stem cell transplantation, and found a donor whose stem cells had a certain mutation of genes that provide immunity to HIV and HLA corresponded to 10 out of 10 alleles with the recipient. Also, Vaart was canceled after 34 months to avoid potential drug interactions. As a result, the patient was found to be in long-term remission, and there were no signs of cancer or HIV. This was due to the resistance of the CCR5 gene, which encodes a protein on the surface of the lymphocyte, from the moment of interaction with the virus of penetration into the body. In the absence of a specific site, the gene becomes defective, which prevented interaction with the virus, since it did not recognize it. Since then, scientists have set their sights on creating a vaccine against HIV-a using stem cells. But red bone marrow transplants were extremely dangerous for people infected with HIV.
In the Lancet, published the second case of healing from HIV-a using a stem cell transplant. An HIV-infected patient was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma for almost 10 years. Doctors promptly selected a donor for him, a carrier of the mutated CCR5 gene, which contributed to treatment for lymphoma and HIV infection for 30 months. This process again surprised the doctors, so the attending physician Ravindra Kumar Gupta of the University of Cambridge with colleagues, published an article in March 2019, where they described their observations in detail. Based on their observations, the reason for the disappearance of HIV infection was calculated using a mathematical model. Where, the analysis found that all the patient's T-lymphocytes were donated and resistant to the virus. In this scenario, the model predicts a 100 percent recovery without remission. However, doctors continue to monitor the patient. The reduction of the reservoir for virus reproduction was a major factor, rather than the number of infected cells or the duration of remission. Scientists also shared that the fate of this patient can be repeated by several more people, but it is still in the process. It is still too early to apply this method in humans. But it became known that stem cell transplantation in rare cases leads to the formation of donor cells in the patient's genitals.
Of course, it would be much more convenient to mutate the cell genome in the patient, for example, using CRISPR/Cas9, but the safety of this method has not yet been fully studied. Stem cells are good because in any organism they can be specialized in the way that is necessary for this body. They are universal as well as the scope of their use. Scientists are sure that very soon they will again please many people with new properties of stem cells.
