Timothy Ray Brown in 2012
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the “Berlin Patient,” underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2007. The donor had a rare genetic mutation that conferred immunity to HIV. After a bone marrow transplant, Brown no longer needed to take antiviral medication. The virus was no longer detectable in his body.
Timothy Brown was born in the USA. In 1995 he was living in Berlin where he was diagnosed with HIV. In 2007, he was also diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer. Doctors decided to completely destroy his bone marrow, where cancer cells had spread, and transplant bone marrow from a donor. The donor had a rare mutation in a piece of DNA called the CCR5 gene. The normal CCR5 gene allows the HIV virus to infect other cells. But when the gene mutates, it does not allow the virus to spread.
The operation was performed in 2007 at the university hospital “Charite,” which in recent weeks has become known as the place of treatment for Alexei Navalny. In the publication about the results of the operation, doctors did not mention Brown’s name, so for the first few years he was known as the “Berlin patient”. After a bone marrow transplant, Brown’s HIV levels in his blood dropped to undetectable levels. It can be said that he was cured. In 2010, Brown publicly announced that he was the “Berlin patient” himself. His leukemia also did not manifest for several years. But this year he relapsed, and the cancer spread to his brain and spine. Timothy Ray Brown died at a hospice in Palm Springs, California. He was 54 years old. “It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that Timothy has passed away…surrounded by me and friends, after a five-month battle with leukemia,” Tim Hoffgen, partner of the “Berlin patient,” wrote on Facebook.
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The medical procedure that Timothy Brown underwent is associated with increased risk and is primarily used for cancer patients. It is not applicable to the majority of HIV-positive patients and is also expensive. Approximately 38 million people worldwide are living with HIV, many of them in poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa. But Brown’s case has given researchers, patients, and doctors hope that, in time, a cure for HIV will be found. There is only one known case of the procedure being successfully repeated. Earlier this year, Adam Castillejo, formerly known as the “London patient,” came forward. He underwent an almost identical operation and is now able to stop taking medication to control HIV. “Although the procedures that Timothy and Adam underwent cannot be widely applied, their case shows that HIV can be cured,” says Professor Sharon Lewin of the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia. “Timothy’s recovery has caught the attention of scientists and politicians alike,” she said. Scientists hope to find a safe, inexpensive, and widely accessible way to fight HIV, and the cases of Timothy and Adam serve as an example that it may be possible.