Identity of “second Berlin patient” cured of HIV is released

Berlin’s Charité hospital has confirmed the identity of the “second Berlin patient” cured of HIV and opened a new HIV cure research centre.

Charité employee named as “second Berlin patient”

Thomas Kahlert, who has worked at the Charité hospital in Berlin for 38 years, has been named as the “second Berlin patient”. Kahlert was diagnosed with HIV following a routine examination in 2009 and then with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2015.

The hospital employee received a stem cell transplant and chemotherapy. Since his treatment 11 years ago, doctors have not been able to detect human immunodeficiency virus or cancer cells, and consider Kahlert cured.

Although research developments in Kahlert’s case have been public, he was long pseudonymously dubbed the “second Berlin patient”. The “first Berlin patient” was Timothy Ray Brown, a US citizen, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 while studying abroad in the capital.

Brown was then diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2006, received multiple stem cell transplants, and was eventually considered the first person to be cured of HIV/AIDS. However, Brown’s leukaemia returned in 2019, and he died in 2020.

HIV attacks immune cells at their CCR5 receptors. According to Charité’s research, around 1 percent of people of European descent have a mutated version of CCR5 receptors, known as the delta-32 mutation. The mutation blocks the virus from entering cells, and people with it are considered naturally immune to HIV.

In Brown’s case, doctors found a stem cell donor with the delta-32 mutation and matching tissue characteristics. In Kahlert’s case, he and his donor both had a mix of typical CCR5 receptors and the delta-32 mutation. This happens when someone inherits the mutation from one parent. 

Charité opens HIV cure research centre

Charité publicly revealed Kahlert’s identity at the opening of its new BeCURE HIV research centre. While around 41 million people worldwide live with HIV, only 13 people so far are considered to have been cured of HIV, including Brown and Kahlert.

The BeCURE team intends to use targeted antibody and immunotherapies, as well as gene and cell therapies used in Kahlert’s case. “We want to fundamentally improve the outlook for people living with HIV,” researcher Christian Gaebler said in a press release.

"Our goal at BeCURE is to make an HIV cure or long-term remission a genuine treatment option," Gaebler added. Once patients enter remission, the body can keep the virus in check without medication.