Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1983. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Saturday, August 27, 1983
Their "favorite hypothesis" is that AIDS is caused by a "retrovirus" that, with repeated exposure, weakens the immune system.
The virus is similar to -- but immunologically quite distinct from -- another virus now thought to be linked to AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, the Paris researchers said in a JAMA article.
The so-called French virus has been detected so far in four of six patients who do not have AIDS but suffer multiple lymphadenopathy syndrome -- disease of the lymph nodes. The doctors named the virus "lymphadenopathy virus" -- LAV.
The researchers said lymph disease is a possible early manifestation of impending AIDS.
LAV is actually a retrovirus, virologist Luc Montagnier told JAMA.
A retrovirus carries only a single strand of RNA, the genetic material. A retrovirus also contains an enzyme that allows it to transcribe RNA into double-stranded DNA, the unit of which genes are made. Then, the converted virus inserts itself into cell-controlling genes and alters cell behavior.
Initially, LAV was thought to be a member of the HLTV family, the only other known human retrovirus. But the LAV has been found to be quite dissimilar from HTLV, a virus linked to acute leukemia and a type of lymphoma, the researchers said.
All six of the French patients have a history of homosexual promiscuity. Five are relatively healthy.
All six patients demonstrated antibodies to LAV proteins, suggesting some exposure to the retrovirus. Preliminary tests in two patients with AIDS suggested they were also infected with LAV or a retrovirus much like it.
David Klatzmann, an with the French AIDS Working Group, said the researchers' "favorite hypothesis" is that AIDS is caused by a retrovirus, HTLV, LAV or another not yet discovered.
"We do not think the disease is primarily due to an immune deficiency state and that a retrovirus -- or another agent that selectively impairs a crucial component of the immune system.
"In most individuals, it probably takes several attacks with the same retrovirus for the immune system to be sufficiently knocked out so that the victim of the these multiple attacks is immunologically prey to all kinds of opportunistic insults, including cancer."
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