To Fund or Not to Fund, that is the Question: Proposed Experiments on the Drug-AIDS Hypothesis

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DUESBERG FUNDING

From Duesberg's funding application
The long-term consumption of nitrite inhalants has been
suggested since 1981 as a possible contributing factor to AIDS.
Epidemiological correlations have established a dose-response
relationship between nitrite consumption and AIDS risk, and the
restriction in their use to the active homosexual community
correlates well with the restriction of Kaposi's sarcoma in
homosexuals with AIDS. Long-term exposure of mice to nitrites
can result in immune suppression. However, such toxicological
experiments have thus far remained inconclusive, because they
have not been carried out at an adequate dose and length of time.
Following and exceeding unfinished studies by others from the
mid-1980's, it is proposed here to determine the effects of the
long-term inhalation of nitrites on mice (e.g. 6 hrs per day, 5 days
per week, for 6 to 24 months). To distinguish between the roles of
nitrites as autonomous pathogens and as co-factors of HIV, murine
retrovirus-infected and un-infected mice will be studied in
parallel. The parameters to be monitored include a) weight loss,
b) anemia and lymphocytopenia, c) clinical manifestations of
immunodeficiency, particularly Pneumocystis pneumonia, d)
evidence for Kaposi's sarcoma. In addition, we propose to study
the effects of nitrites on the growth rate of human t-cell lines in
culture. Finally we plan to examine the Kaposi sarcomagenic
potential of nitrites on rodent cells in culture. Avoiding the
toxicity to vital organs, like the lung and the bone marrow, the
cell culture system will permit us to test nitrites at higher-thanin-vivo concentrations. This is critical to detect sarcomagenic
potential, because Kaposi sarcomas are typically restricted to
humans with the highest cumulative lifetime doses of nitrites.
The proposed research would clarify whether
immunosuppression and/or Kaposi sarcoma can results from longterm exposure to nitrite inhalants. Public health efforts aimed at
AIDS prevention might increase their effectiveness by
discouraging the recreational use of nitrites and other
psychoactive drugs, thereby lowering the AIDS risk even of those
already infected by HIV.
It is not generally realized that the nitrites-AIDS hypothesis (that
nitrites play a strong role in causing AIDS) was the first one offered by