AEGiS-AP: Link between rare cancer, AIDS a clue to origin of the disease

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1983. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Link between rare cancer, AIDS a clue to origin of the disease

Associated Press - Friday, May 13, 1983

WASHINGTON - Scientists have established a tenuous link between a rare cancer virus and a deadly immune system disease, in a move that researchers say represents an exciting new lead in unraveling the mystery of the affliction known as AIDS.

The scientists found evidence of the cancer virus in some AIDS patients and some people with a condition that may be a precursor to the disease, the origin of which is unknown and for which there is no cure.

AIDS, which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is a condition that irreparably breaks down the body's disease-fighting immune system. In the process, it knocks out a type of defensive white blood cell called a T-cell.

Of the more than 1,350 people known to have acquired AIDS in the United States, 500 have died and experts suspect that mortality eventually will exceed 70 per cent.

Five related reports linking the human T-cell leukemia virus, or HTLV, to AIDS are to be published today in Science magazine by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Pasteur Institute in France and the National Cancer Institute.

It is much too early to tell if the cancer virus actually causes AIDS, researchers stress, but because a virus is suspected of being involved, it now joins the list of viral candidates.

Also, scientists say they are not sure if the virus plays a primary role in AIDS or if it is just another infectious agent picked up after victims lose their defenses against all disease.

With no defenses, AIDS victims develop rare cancers such as Kaposi's sarcoma, as well as unusual pneumonia and other infections that normally don't bother healthy people.

While the majority of victims have been sexually active male homosexuals, others with increased risk of contracting AIDS are intravenous drug abusers, recent immigrants from Haiti and hemophiliacs and others who receive multiple blood transfusions.

Dr. Max Essex and colleagues at Harvard tested blood samples obtained from the federal Centers for Disease Control which were taken from 75 AIDS patients. They compared these samples with blood taken from a like number of homosexuals not known to have the disease.

The researchers found that between 25 per cent and 40 per cent of the AIDS patients had antibodies to HTLV, indicating they had been infected by the virus. This compared with less than 1 per cent in the control group.

Dr. Robert Gallo and associates at the National Cancer Institute isolated an HTLV virus from the T-cells of an AIDS patient and found proteins from the virus in the cells of two other patients, suggesting infection. Other institute researchers found genetic material from HTLV viruses in the T-cells of two of 33 additional AIDS victims.

In Paris, meanwhile, Dr. Luc Montagnier and co-workers isolated an HTLV-related virus from a homosexual patient who suffered multiple infections and had a disease that could be a forerunner to AIDS.

Essex said in a telephone interview that not having evidence of the virus in all AIDS patients could mean HTLV does not cause the disease.

But it also could mean that present tests simply are not sensitive enough to detect the virus in all cases, Essex said.
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