HIV isolated?
NATURE ALSO rejected this letter from Papadopulos-Eleopulos's
team, which examined an article that Nature did publish.
In "News and Views" (Nature Feb. 4),
Robin Weiss and Richard Wrangham stated "the retrovirus that
is the main cause of AIDS has been a puzzle ever since it was discovered
by Barre-Sinoussi and her colleagues in 1983."
Sirs:
To isolate HIV, the authors used the long-accepted
method for retroviral isolation: banding (ultracentrifugation) in
density gradients ("Isolation of a T-Lymphotropic Retrovirus
from a Patient at Risk for AIDS," Science 220,
1983). They claimed to have shown that the density of 1.16g/ml --
the sucrose density at which retroviral particles band -- contained
"purified, labeled virus"; that is, the 1.16g/ml band
contained nothing but retrovirus particles isolated from everything
else.
Last year the French journalist Djamel Tahi interviewed
the senior, most quoted author of the Barre-Sinoussi paper, Luc
Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute (Continuum 5, 1998;
www. virusmyth.com/aids/data/dtinterviewlm.htm). Tahi asked Montagnier
why his group did not publish electron micrographs proving that
the 1.16g/ml band contained isolated HIV particles. Montagnier answered:
they published no such proof because, even after a "Roman effort,"
at the density of 1.16g/ml they could see no particles with "morphology
typical of retroviruses." He gave similar answers to repeated
questions, including "I repeat, we did not purify," that
is, isolate HIV.
Given the important and highly significant differences
in the consequences of these contradictory claims, it is a matter
of urgency for the other 11 authors of the 1983 study, and especially
Barre-Sinoussi and her co-workers from the Pasteur Institute, to
either confirm or refute Montagnier's statements.
Signed,
Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos (1)
Valendar F. Turner (2)
John M. Papadimitriou (3)
David Causer (Senior Physicist) (1)
Bruce Hedland-Thomas (1)
Barry Page (1)
Charles Geshekter (4)
Etienne DeHarven (5)
Helman Alphonso(6)
Todd Miller (7)
1) Dept of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia.
bruce.hedland-thomas@rph.health.wa.
gov.au;
2) Dept. of Emergency Medicine, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia;
3) Dept of Pathology, University of Western Australia;
4) Dept. of History California State University, Chico, California;
5) Professor (Emeritus) of Pathology, University of Toronto, Canada.
6) Head, Department of Research, Universidad Metropolitana Barranquilla,
Colombia
7) Assistant Scientist,Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology,
University of Miami School of Medicine, Florida, USA
Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, Biophysicist, Department
of Medical Physics, Royal Perth Hospital, Wellington Street, Perth
6001, Western Australia.
www.virusmyth.com/aids/perthgroup;vturner@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Recent publications by the Papadopulos-Eleopulos
group
ELENI PAPADOPULOS-ELEOPULOS'S team recently published
the following articles, which -- like all their previous articles
-- can be accessed at www.virusmyth.com/aids/perthgroup:
"A Critical Analysis of the Pharmacology of
AZT and its Use in AIDS," (Current Medical Research and
Opinion 15:3 Supplement 1, 1999).
"The Yin & Yang of HIV," (an extensive
2-part series in the alternative press magazine Nexus
6:4,5, Jun-Jul, Aug-Sep).
"Looking Back on the Oxidative Stress Theory
of AIDS," (Continuum 5:5, midwinter 1998-99).
This article provides an excellent synopsis of EPE's explanation
for how all the risk factors (narcotics, anti-AIDS drugs, poverty,
blood therapy, rectal semen) may cause both AIDS and
"HIV."