Ayaan Isaacs, health24
Ayaan Isaacs was born in South Africa on March 4th, 2016 as a seemingly healthy baby. But only a few days in to life, he contracted a life-threatening liver infection. He thankfully survived, only to have the doctors discover a few weeks later that he had something much more troubling – a rare disease that left him without a functioning immune system.
Ayaan was diagnosed with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), which is often referred to as ‘bubble baby’ disease because patients are extremely susceptible to infection and must live in sterile environments. SCID patients can be cured with a blood stem cell transplant if they have a genetically matched donor. Unfortunately for Ayaan, only a partially matched donor was available, which doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome.
Ayaan’s parents were desperate for an alternative treatment to save Ayaan’s life. It was at this point that they learned about a clinical trial at St. Jude Children’s Research hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The trial is treating SCID patients with a stem cell gene therapy that aims to give them a new functioning immune system. The therapy involves extracting the patient’s blood-forming stem cells and genetically correcting the mutation that causes SCID. The corrected blood stem cells are then transplanted back into the patient where they rebuild a healthy immune system.
Ayaan was able to enroll in the trial, and he was the first child in Africa to receive this life-saving gene therapy treatment. Ayaan’s journey with bubble boy disease was featured by South Africa’s health24 earlier this year. In the article, his mom Shamma Sheik talked about the hope that this gene therapy treatment brought to their family.
“No child should have to die just because they are unable to find a donor. Gene therapy offered Ayaan a chance at life that he ordinarily would not have had. I was fortunate to have found an alternative therapy that is working and already showing remarkable results. We are mindful that this is still an experimental treatment and there are complications that can arise; however, I am very optimistic that he will return to South Africa with a functioning immune system.”
Carte Blanche, an investigative journalism program in South Africa, did a feature video of Ayaan in February. Although the video is no longer available on their website, it did reveal that four months after Ayaan’s treatment, his condition started to improve suggesting that the treatment was potentially working.
We’ve written previously about another young boy named Ronnie who was diagnosed with X-linked SCID days after he was born. Ronnie also received the St. Jude stem cell gene therapy in a CIRM-funded clinical trial at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Ronnie was treated when he was six months old and just celebrated his first birthday as a healthy, vibrant kid thanks to this trial. You can hear more about Ronnie’s moving story from his dad, Pawash Priyank, in the video below.
Our hope is that powerful stories like Ayaan’s and Ronnie’s will raise awareness about SCID and the promising potential of stem cell gene therapies to cure patients of this life-threatening immune disease.
Ronnie and his parents celebrating his 1st birthday. (Photo courtesy of Pawash Priyank)
Related Links:
The Stem Cellar 