Miami Herald - Wednesday, November 16, 1983
Steve Sternberg, Herald Staff Writer

The new research, by Lawrence Falk of the New England Primate Center in Southboro, Mass., challenges earlier work linking the "human T cell leukemia virus (HTLV)," with AIDS, an ailment that cripples the body's ability to ward off infection and is usually fatal.

Falk told nearly 1,000 AIDS researchers at a national conference here Tuesday that using two separate tests he found no trace of the virus other researchers had found in the blood of some AIDS victims.

One test failed to detect antibodies to the virus in any of 50 patients, Falk said. Another test disclosed evidence of antibodies to HTLV in only 15 of the patients.

When Dr. Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., discovered HLTV antibodies in AIDS patients earlier this year, it led to widespread speculation that the virus might be one cause of the syndrome.

HTLV so far is the only infectious agent that is both found in a wide spectrum of AIDS victims, and is known to affect "T cells." Those cells, sentinels in the body's defense against infection, are critically affected by AIDS.

Gallo and other researchers had noted that HTLV may simply be another of the wide spectrum of so called "opportunistic infections" that afflict AIDS patients. Even so, many researchers believed that HTLV was a key clue in the exhaustive search for the syndrome's cause.

"It's still our best lead, " said Dr. Donald Francis, chief of the AIDS laboratory at the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, after Falk's discouraging report.

As a result of Falk's work, the stock in HTLV has gone down, Dr. Robert A. Good, an immunologist with the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Reserach, said Tuesday.

Even so, he said, the presence or absence of the virus may lie at the heart of the AIDS puzzle. "It is a very central issue that needs critical appraisal," he said.

HTLV earlier had been linked by Japanese researchers to a type of blood cancer that affects T cells, leading them to suspect there may be some sort of connection.

AIDS undermines the immune system by mysteriously destroying infection-fighting cells called "helper T lymphocytes." At the same time, "suppressor T lymphocytes," which turn off the body's immune responses, multiply.

As a result, researchers said, AIDS patients contract, and usually die of, a variety of exotic infections that don't affect normal people. Thus far, researchers have been unable to discover the cause of the immune suppression, found predominantly in homosexuals, hemophiliacs, abusers of intravenous drugs and Haitians.

Francis says that Falk and his coworkers are using tests that are not sensitive enough to detect antibodies, HTLV. "It's the wrong test, not that we're sure we have the right one. "

Nevertheless, Francis said he has isloated HTLV antibodies in the blood of 30 per cent of 125 AIDS patients. The antibodies also have been found in 30 per cent of persons with symptoms that foreshadow AIDS, he said. In contrast, only 1 per cent of normal volunteers had antibodies to the virus in their blood, Francis said.

Falk defended his test later. "I think it is adequate." He also agreed it casts doubts on HTLV as a cause of AIDS, but noted that "for none of the agents that have been proposed is there convincing evidence."

Francis said that the suspect virus may not be HTLV at all, but a similar organism that attracts similiar antibodies. "We may have the right test but aimed at the wrong target," he said.
831116
MH831101

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1983. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .