Timothy Ray Brown

Brown (2012)

Timothy Ray Brown (born March 11, 1966 in Seattle , Washington , † September 29, 2020 in Palm Springs , California ) was an American translator . He became known under the name The Berlin Patient (translated: The Berlin Patient ) as the first person to be cured of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). In July 2012 he founded the cure for AIDS foundation (Timothy Ray Brown Foundation) with the stated aim of finding a cure for AIDS .

Life

Brown grew up in Seattle and outed himself in 1984 as a gay . He emigrated to Europe and initially lived in Barcelona . In 1989 Brown lived again in Seattle, where he worked for Act Up for a short time . Then he moved to Berlin and learned the German language there .

HIV infection

In 1995 he tested positive for HIV in Berlin. Brown received highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for eleven years .

In 2006 he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). At the Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin (CBF) in Berlin-Lichterfelde , the hematologist Gero Hütter first started chemotherapy . When it did not bring the desired success, he opted for an allogeneic stem cell transplant in February 2007 . He used bone marrow with an altered CCR5 gene, the mutation CCR5Δ32 . Afterwards, the HI virus was no longer detectable in Brown.

cure

Brown has apparently been HIV-free since then. In 2007 he stopped taking HIV medication. After a second stem cell transplant in February 2008, the leukemia seemed to be over. After the second transplant, however, Brown suffered from neurological disorders.

Brown returned to the United States in 2011 and lived in San Francisco until 2015 . At an event organized by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), he gave a lecture on "Healing - Still a dirty word?"

Most recently, he lived in a hospice in Palm Springs, where he last lived , where he died of leukemia on September 29, 2020 .

Science dispute

In the meantime, new findings have sparked scientific disputes. Steven Yukl, virus expert from the University of California, San Francisco, reported in 2012 about blood tests at Brown to clarify whether he actually got rid of the HI virus. Using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), he examined nine billion Brown's blood cells for HIV. After several attempts, he found fragments of the virus genome in Brown's blood plasma . Parallel tests with Brown's blood carried out by Douglas Richman, a pathologist at the University of California, San Diego , did not lead to any findings. Richman believes that the Yukl test may contaminate the test and that PCR is not reliable.

Further implications for research

Anthony Fauci , head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), considers the Browns case to be a proof of concept that it is possible to take the fight against AIDS far beyond antiviral therapy. Microbiologist Paula Cannon has been working at the University of Southern California since 2010 on a gene therapy that is said to have the same effect on HIV patients as Timothy Brown's stem cell transplant.

So far there are six other HIV patients who received chemotherapy and then a bone marrow donation and no longer have any traces of the virus in their bodies. Only one of the six (Adam Castillejo, "The London Patient", "The London Patient") received a donation from a person with the CCR5 mutation, so it is speculated that a side effect of the bone marrow donation might have wiped out the virus.

Web links

• Hank Plante: Apparent Immunity Gene 'Cures' Bay Area Man Of AIDS. (Video; 6:18 minutes) In: CBS San Francisco . May 16, 2011 (English). 
• Timothy Ray Brown, First Man Cured Of HIV Infection, Has Terminal Cancer. In: CBS San Francisco. September 25, 2020(English). 
• Kristina Allers, Gero Hütter u. a .: Selected Abstracts: Evidence for the cure of HIV infection by CCR5 {Delta} 32 / {Delta} 32 stem cell transplantation. In: Blood. December 8, 2010, archived from the original on April 14, 2013 . 
• Peter-Philipp Schmitt: Research: With mutation against HIV. In: FAZ.net . July 18, 2010 . 
• First “cured” HIV patient suffers from terminal cancer. In: welt.de . September 26, 2020. 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sam Roberts: Timothy Ray Brown, First Patient Cured of HIV, Dies at 54. In: nytimes.com . September 30, 2020, accessed October 1, 2020 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Timothy Brown: The Berlin Patient. In: timothyrbrown.com. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011 ; accessed on October 1, 2020 (English). 
3. ^ Cure for AIDS Coalition & Timothy Ray Brown Foundation. In: worldaidsinstitute.org. Archived from the original on March 10, 2014 ; accessed on October 1, 2020 (English). 
4. ↑ Melissa Healy: HIV patient Timothy Brown is the boy who lived. In: latimes.com . June 5, 2011, accessed October 1, 2020 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Tina Rosenberg: The Man Who Had HIV and Now Does Not. In: NYmag.com . May 27, 2011, accessed October 1, 2020 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Kerstin Decker : AIDS healing: anatomy of a miracle. In: tagesspiegel.de . June 6, 2011, accessed October 1, 2020 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Hartmut Wewetzer : Guessing the "Berlin patient". In: tagesspiegel.de. June 13, 2012, accessed October 1, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Saundra Young: Talk of 'cure' at historic AIDS conference. In: CNN . July 23, 2012, accessed October 1, 2020 . 
9. ^ University of Southern California: Programs in Biomedical and Biological Sciences: Paula Cannon. In: pibbs.usc.edu. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017 ; accessed on October 1, 2020 . 
10. ^ Clare Wilson: Immune war with donor cells after transplant may wipe out HIV. In: newscientist.com . May 3, 2017, accessed October 1, 2020 .