Papadopulos-Eleopulos Eleni, Turner Valendar F, Papadimitriou John, Page Barry, Causer David, Alfonso Helman, Mhlongo Sam, Miller Todd, Maniotis Andrew, Fiala Christian
Department of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Wellington St. Perth, WA 6001, Australia.
Med Hypotheses. 2004;63(4):597-601. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2004.03.025.
In 1983 Luc Montagnier and his colleagues claimed to have discovered a novel retrovirus presently known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By 1984 HIV was almost universally accepted to be the cause of AIDS. However, 20 years later, HIV cannot account for the phenomena for which the retroviral hypothesis was proposed, namely, Kaposi's sarcoma, decrease in T4 lymphocytes and thus the opportunistic infections in AIDS patients which were assumed to be the direct results of this decrease. Agents other than HIV to which patients belonging to the AIDS risk groups are exposed cause decrease in T4 cells. Neither have the main predictions of the HIV hypothesis been fulfilled. HIV seropositivity in the developed countries still remains restricted to the original high risk groups, no HIV vaccine exists, and no successful animal model has been developed. In this communication, we critically analyse the evidence which in 1983 was claimed to prove the existence of HIV. The phenomena which Montagnier and his colleagues considered proof for the existence of HIV are detection of reverse transcriptase activity; the presence of retrovirus-like particles in the culture; immunological reactivity between proteins from the culture supernatant which, in sucrose density gradients, banded at the density of 1.16 g/ml ("purified virus") and antibodies in a patient's (BRU) serum. Reverse transcriptase activity can be found in viruses other than retroviruses and in all normal cells. Reverse transcription can be brought about not only by the enzyme reverse transcriptase but also by normal, cellular DNA polymerases. Retrovirus-like particles are ubiquitous in cultures not infected with retroviruses, especially in conditions employed by Montagnier et al. From the reaction between proteins in the "purified virus" and antibodies in the patient serum Montagnier concluded that the proteins were HIV proteins and the antibodies were HIV antibodies. Since all antibodies are polyspecific, from such a reaction it is not possible to define the origin of even one reactant let alone both. Even if this were possible, since Montagnier's "purified virus" did not contain particles with the "morphology typical of retroviruses", the proteins cannot be retroviral. We conclude that, these phenomena are non-specific to retroviruses and thus cannot be considered proof for the existence of a unique retrovirus HIV.
1983年，吕克·蒙塔尼耶及其同事宣称发现了一种新型逆转录病毒，即如今所知的人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）。到1984年，HIV几乎被普遍认为是艾滋病的病因。然而，20年后，HIV无法解释提出逆转录病毒假说所基于的现象，即卡波西肉瘤、T4淋巴细胞减少以及艾滋病患者的机会性感染，而这些感染被认为是T4细胞减少的直接后果。属于艾滋病风险群体的患者接触到的除HIV之外的其他病原体也会导致T4细胞减少。HIV假说的主要预测也均未实现。发达国家的HIV血清阳性率仍局限于最初的高风险群体，尚无HIV疫苗，也未开发出成功的动物模型。在本通讯中，我们批判性地分析了1983年据称可证明HIV存在的证据。蒙塔尼耶及其同事认为可证明HIV存在的现象包括逆转录酶活性的检测；培养物中存在逆转录病毒样颗粒；培养上清液中的蛋白质（在蔗糖密度梯度中，其条带密度为1.16 g/ml，即“纯化病毒”）与患者（BRU）血清中的抗体之间的免疫反应性。逆转录酶活性不仅可在逆转录病毒以外的病毒中发现，也可在所有正常细胞中发现。逆转录不仅可由逆转录酶引发，也可由正常的细胞DNA聚合酶引发。逆转录病毒样颗粒在未感染逆转录病毒的培养物中普遍存在，尤其是在蒙塔尼耶等人采用的条件下。从“纯化病毒”中的蛋白质与患者血清中的抗体之间的反应，蒙塔尼耶得出结论，这些蛋白质是HIV蛋白质，抗体是HIV抗体。由于所有抗体都是多特异性的，从这样的反应中甚至不可能确定哪怕一种反应物的来源，更不用说两种了。即便有可能，由于蒙塔尼耶的“纯化病毒”并不包含具有“逆转录病毒典型形态”的颗粒，这些蛋白质不可能是逆转录病毒的。我们得出结论，这些现象并非逆转录病毒所特有，因此不能被视为存在独特逆转录病毒HIV的证据。
