04/28/2026
We are glad to be part of the team at Ribbon Community and to share this important information breaking down the science behind the "Toronto patient" - the first person in Canada to have sustained HIV remission and on track to an HIV cure following a treatment for cancer of the blood.
In a Canadian first, a person living with HIV has achieved sustained HIV remission after 27 years of living with the virus. Known as the “Toronto patient”, this person has had an undetectable viral load without medication for about 9 months following a bone marrow transplant as part of treatment for a cancer of the blood. The Toronto patient had a form of cancer that impacts the bone marrow, a key part of the immune system.
Whether or not a person is living with HIV, a stem cell transplant is part of the cancer treatment. For people living with HIV, we know that transplanting stem cells with a rare but natural genetic mutation in the human CCR5 gene, called the “delta-32” mutation, can lead to an HIV cure.
CCR5 is a receptor that is expressed on the surface of our immune cells. HIV uses this receptor to enter the immune cells it needs to live inside our bodies. The CCR5 delta-32 mutation produces a non-functional CCR5 receptor on our immune cells, so HIV cannot enter. Therefore, people with two copies of this mutation are effectively resistant to HIV infection. The Toronto patient received bone marrow from a rare donor who had two copies of the CCR5 delta-32 mutation.
The Toronto patient stopped taking medication in July 2025 and 9 months later, his viral load is still undetectable without medication. Scientists consider a person cured of HIV when it has been 2.5 years of no medications and an undetectable viral load.
Unfortunately, using bone marrow transplants to cure HIV is not something that can be done for people without blood cancer. Also, finding a bone marrow donor who has two copies of the CCR5 delta-32 mutation is difficult because this mutation is very rare. Among people of Northern European ethnicity, about 1% of people have two copies of the CCR5 delta-32 mutation. Though the mutation is also found in people of Southern European, West Asian and North African ancestry, it would be extremely rare to find a person with two copies of this mutation in these populations. The CCR5 delta-32 mutation has not been found in people from Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia or Indigenous populations.
this approach to HIV cure is not practical to offer everyone., it does give scientists more information about what areas to continue to research in the search for a cure. Ribbon Community is grateful for the ongoing work of scientists in BC and across Canada, including Dr. Zabrina Brumme and other researchers in the Canadian HIV Cure Enterprise (CanCURE) consortium, to realize an HIV cure.
If you would like to learn more about current HIV cure research from Ribbon Community and researchers in BC, please reach out as we would be happy to host an information session in-person and/or online!
Thank you to Dr. Brumme, the Laboratory Director at the Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University for reviewing this content.
