The New York Times - October 24, 1986
Harold M. Schmeck Jr.

Two reports in Science yesterday described it as "a novel" virus that infects certain cells of the human immune defense system.

The reports said that the virus had strong structural and chemical similarities to herpes viruses but also marked differences from all of the major types known. Thus, it could prove to be the first new human herpes virus to be found in about 20 years. All the known human herpes viruses are important causes of disease, and the scientists at the cancer institute think it likely that this will be true of the newly discovered virus, too.

Further research may identify it as a human cancer virus, but the reports did not assert that. The presence of a virus in a patient's tissues does not prove the virus caused his or her disease.

"The exciting part for a virologist or a biologist is that it is a new virus and that it is doing things differently than viruses that have been studied before," said Dr. Robert C. Gallo whose research group at the institute in Bethesda, Md., discovered it.

The scientists have designated it human B-lymphotropic virus (HBLV) because it infects human immune defense cells called B-lymphocytes and apparently no other cells. In that respect it differs from other known herpes viruses. They infect a variety of cells. B-lymphocytes are the immune defense cells responsible for the production of protective antibodies.

Other scientists described the discovery as potentially important and likely to open up a new field of virus studies. "I suspect we are going to see more and more isolations of novel viruses that have not been recognized before," said Dr. Patricia G. Spear of University of Chicago, an expert on herpes viruses. The discoveries, she said, are to be expected from improved ability to grow cells in laboratory cell cultures and from related laboratory research techniques.

Virus Found in Six Patients

The group at the cancer institute found the new virus in studies in which various cells of the human immune defense system were grown in laboratory flasks. The scientists are experts in this area of research. Dr. Gallo identified the AIDS virus several years ago and, earlier, discovered a human cancer virus, HTLV-I, in a class of viruses previously only known to exist in animals.

The new herpeslike virus was found in six patients all of whom had swollen lymph glands or other abnormalities in the cells of their immune defense systems. Three of the patients had lymphomas and one, acute leukemia, cancers that affect cells of the blood and immune system.

Two of the patients also showed evidence that they were infected with the virus that causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but cancer institute scientists said they had no evidence of a special relationship between the newly discovered virus and AIDS.

Indeed, blood samples from 12 other AIDS patients who did not have cancers all lacked antibodies against the newly discovered virus, indicating that they were not infected with HBLV. Evidence of antibodies suggesting infection with the newly discovered virus was found in only four of 220 healthy individuals tested at random for presence of the new virus.

"We are trying to understand its role, direct or indirect, in lymphoproliferative disorders, that is, lymphoid malignancies" said Dr. Gallo. Lymphoid malignancies are cancers of the immune defense system.

There are hints that the virus may attack the human brain and central nervous system, he said, and this possibility is being pursued "aggressively now."

The scientists are also interested in possible links between HBLV and outbreaks of chronic illness that seem to be caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, one of the well known herpes viruses. But there appears to be no hard evidence of this at present, Dr. Gallo said.

The new studies have demonstrated that the virus is not simply a variant of known human herpes viruses or simian viruses, those that infect monkeys.

"This does not appear to be a recent infection of man by one of the known simian herpes viruses," said the report. The scientists said all of the samples of virus they found in the six patients were of the same virus species and were distinct from known human herpes viruses. The research team concluded that "HBLV is a novel human herpeslike virus."

In addition to Dr. Gallo, authors of the reports are Flossie Wong-Staal, S. Zaki Salahuddin, Dharam V. Ablashi, Phillip D. Markham, Steven F. Josephs, Susi Sturzenberger, Mark Kaplan, Gregory Halligan, Peter Biberfeld, Bernhard Kramarsky and Francois Schachter.

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