Newsday - February 2, 1992
Laurie Garrett

Viruses similar to those that cause AIDS and herpes can swap genetic material inside animal cells, say scientists who think the process may explain how new, and sometimes more deadly, viruses evolve.

A chicken herpes virus and tiny a retrovirus - one that is similar to the human immunodeficiency virus - exchanged genetic material inside chicken cells, and recombined those genes to produce a cancer-causing virus with new capabilities, Case Western Reserve University scientists report in today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This recombination of two totally unrelated viruses occurred in nature, as well as in laboratory tests, researcher Hsing-Jien Kung said.

"I think if any herpes-type virus and retrovirus get into the same cell, such recombination will occur," he said.

Kung has since shown such recombinations occur with other types of herpes and retroviruses, and suggested it might happen in people who are infected with HIV and herpes. It is too soon to know if recombination has already occured in humans, but scientists said they would explore the possibility.

The most commonly found herpes virus in people with HIV is HHV-6, which was discovered in 1986 in Dr. Robert Gallo's laboratory at the National Cancer Institute. Gallo said yesterday that it is "very, very common" to see cells of AIDS patients that are simultaneously infected with HHV-6 and HIV.

"It seems wherever HHV-6 is going, you're bound to bump into HIV," Gallo said. "It's like a cohabitation. So, therefore, I would give this [Kung] paper very careful attention."

Last month, the University of California in San Francisco laboratory of Dr. Jay Levy announced discovery that the two different species of AIDS viruses - HIV-1 and HIV-2 - can recombine inside cells to produce a new, more lethal virus capable of infecting a wider range of types of cells. It is not uncommon in Africa and parts of Asia for people to be infected with both HIV species at the same time, and a few such cases have been reported in New York City.

"What you'd really want to know is if this is going on naturally with HIV," Levy said. "I put this into the category of laboratory science - now let's look at what nature does. We're really asking, `is it biologically important?' If it's not a frequent event, one may never find it in nature."

Even if new species of viruses with new - potentially more lethal - biologic properties are not found in people, Levy said, more subtle recombinations that slightly alter HIVs may be occurring all the time, allowing the viruses to escape people's immune defenses.

Kung said most recombinations in nature probably make nonviable or weak viruses that simply die out.

"But if some of the genes that are recombined confer an advantage to a virus, then the story will be different," he warned.

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