The Relationship between the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (Draft)

DRAFT
wasting syndrome that occurs in human AIDS patients (Bamett et al., 1994). Asian monkeys
infected with clones of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a lentivirus closely related to
HIV, also develop AIDS (reviewed in Desrosiers, 1990; Fultz, 1993). In macaque species,
various cloned SIV isolates induce syndromes that parallel HIV infection and AIDS in humans,
including early lymphadenopathy and the occurrence of opportunistic infections such as
pulmonary Pneumocystis carinii infection, cryptosporidium, candida, and disseminated MAC
(Kurth et al., 1989; Letvin et al., 1985; Kestler et al., 1990; Dewhurst et al., 1990; Desrosiers,
1990; Kodama et al., 1993).
In cell culture experiments, molecular clones of HIV are tropic for the same cells as
clinical HIV isolates and laboratory strains of the virus and show the same pattern of cell
killing (Hays et al., 1992), providing further evidence that HIV is responsible for the immune
defects of AIDS. Moreover, in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice with human
thymus/liver implants, molecular clones of HIV produce the same patterns of cell killing and
pathogenesis as seen with clinical isolates (Bonyhadi et al., 1993; Aldrovandi et al., 1993).
Risk-AIDS Hypothesis
Skeptics of the role of HIV in AIDS have espoused a "risk-AIDS" or a "drug-AIDS"
hypothesis (Duesberg, 1987-1994), asserting at different times that factors such as
promiscuous homosexual activity, repeated venereal infections and antibiotic treatments, the
use of recreational drugs such as nitrite inhalants, cocaine and heroin, immunosuppressive
medical procedures, and treatment with the drug AZT are responsible for the epidemic of
AIDS.
Compelling evidence against the risk-AIDS hypothesis comes from cohort studies of
high-risk groups in which all individuals with AIDS-related conditions are HIV-antibody positive,
while matched, HIV-antibody negative controls do not develop AIDS or immunosuppression,
despite engaging in high-risk behaviors.

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