Current Medical Research and Opinion
Vol. 14: 185-186,
1998
HIV Antibody Tests and Viral Load - More Unanswered
Questions and a Further Plea for Clarification
Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos (1), Valendar F.Turner (2), John M.
Papadimitriou (3), David Causer (1), Barry Page (1)
(1) Department of Medical Physics, (2) Department of
Emergency Medicine, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia; (3)
Department of Pathology, University of Western Australia
At present it is accepted that in 1983 Montagnier proved the
existence of HIV. In their 1983 study Montagnier and his colleagues took
the supernatant from cultures containing tissue derived from AIDS
patients and banded it in sucrose density gradients. They claimed that
the 1.16 gm/ml band represented purified virus.(1) Some of the proteins
and RNAs were considered to represent the retroviral proteins and
retroviral genome respectively. Subsequently the proteins were used as
antigens for the antibody tests and the nucleic acids for hybridisation
and PCR studies. Indeed, it is logical that if the 1.16 gm/ml band
contained purified viral-like particles and the particles were
infectious, one has no choice but to consider both the proteins and the
RNA as being viral constituents.
Since then many other researchers have conducted similar experiments.
However, for some unknown reason, up to 1997, neither Montagnier’s group
nor anybody else published electron micrographs of the 1.16gm/ml band
showing that the band contained nothing else but particles with the
morphological characteristics of retroviral particles, that is, purified
particles. The reason for this, at least for the Montagnier group,
became obvious in an interview Montagnier gave in July 1997 to the
French journalist Djamel Tahi. When Montagnier was asked why such
electron micrographs were not published, his answer was because, even
after "Roman effort", they could see no particles with "morphology
typical of retroviruses".(2)
Since the band did not contain even retrovirus-like particles, not to
mention retroviral particles nor indeed particles with unique retroviral
morphology as the HIV is said to be, the questions then arise:
1. How is it possible to claim proof for retroviral purification and
thus for the existence of HIV?
2. How is it possible to consider the proteins which banded at
1.16gm/ml to be the proteins of a unique retrovirus, HIV, and to use
them as antigens in antibody tests to prove infection with a deadly
retrovirus, HIV?
3. How is it possible to consider the RNAs which banded at 1.16gm/ml
represents the genome of a unique retrovirus and to use these as probes
and primers for hybridisation and PCR tests to prove infection with this
virus and in fact to measure the viral load?
References:
1. Barré-Sinoussi F, Chermann JC, Rey F. (1983). Isolation of a
T-Lymphotrophic Retrovirus from a patient at Risk for Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Science 220:868-871
(2) Tahi D. (1998). Did Luc Montagnier discover HIV? Text of video
interview with Professor Luc Montagnier at the Pasteur Institute July
18th 1997. Continuum 5:30-34