Viral etiology of AIDS and the Gallo probe

Article Abstract:

An opinion is offered in this letter concerning the discovery of the HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus type 1) retrovirus, which causes AIDS. The author is responding to two articles in the June 22, 1990 issue of Science magazine. He believes that Luc Montagnier and his associates at the Pasteur Institute in Paris were, without question, the discoverers of HIV-1. They initially published their identification of an isolate (called LAV/BRU) from an AIDS patient, but they said at the time that its role in the etiology of AIDS "remains to be determined". The uncertainty about its role resulted in part from the fact that the virus does not grow well when cultured with normal human T lymphocytes (white blood cells), a preparation they had used. Determination of the role of LAV/BRU in AIDS relied upon a continuously growing line of T cells that expressed the CD4 molecule on their surfaces. Such a cell line (HUT78) was used by Jay Levy in 1983 for AIDS investigation, and another line of HUT78 cells apparently became contaminated in the laboratory of Robert Gallo during the years from 1981 to 1983. A researcher in Gallo's laboratory, Mika Popovic, established an uncontaminated line by using terminal dilution technology, ending up with an 'H9 clone' which, in fact, was identical to HUT78. Development of such a line was crucial to the regular isolation of the newly discovered retrovirus from AIDS patients. Whether the virus used for developing an antibody that was patented by the National Institutes of Health was a single virus or a mixture of several viruses obtained by Popovic, and whether the mixture contained the LAV strain, are not scientifically important questions, although the answers may have commercial value. In summary, it would appear that the 'Popovic-Gallo' viral strain is the same virus as the 'Montagnier LAV' strain, or the former is largely derived from the latter. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Causes of, HIV (Viruses), HIV, Identification and classification, Montagnier, Luc, letter to the editor

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What are the correlates of protection?

Article Abstract:

AIDS researchers agree that the first step in the process of developing an AIDS vaccine is to identify the specific responses a vaccine must evoke to protect a person from HIV infection. Current research efforts to identify these 'correlates of protection' are discussed.

Prevention, HIV infection, HIV infections, AIDS vaccines

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The changing of the guard; a rising cadre of scientists is focusing on detailed questions about HIV and - some believe - creating a more cooperative research culture

Article Abstract:

Researchers in their 30s and 40s are dominating AIDS research in the late 1990s. Succeeding mostly tumor virologists who first discovered AIDS, the young researchers are more likely than their predecessors to cooperate with one another.

Analysis, History, Cover Story, Viral research, Virus research, AIDS research, Intellectual cooperation

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