This is cool (below). Gene therapy combined with a re-install of the immune system.
I am writing a story where the main character basically gets an immune system reboot. Due to the longevity of the people in the story, they are more susceptible to auto-immune diseases as the immune system breaks down or goes awry. Therefore, folks get regular immune system resets and required re-immunizations.
I know someone who is over 80 and is healthy except for an auto-immune disease that he got in the past 5 years. A reboot would cure him. Right?
The doctors reasoned that if they could find a donor who was not only immune compatible with their patient, but also had two copies of the Delta32 mutation in the CCR5 gene, perhaps they could simultaneously eradicate his leukemia and his HIV infection.
Remarkably, such a donor existed. And 600 days after his bone marrow transplant, the patient is both leukemia- and HIV-free.
