
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990                   TAG: 9006220205
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO                                LENGTH: Medium

AIDS VIRUS QUESTIONED AS ONLY CAUSE

One of the world's most famous AIDS researchers said Thursday that he is no longer convinced that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the sole cause of AIDS. His statement challenged one of the most fundamental scientific beliefs about the disease.

In an unusual, three-hour session Wednesday night at the Sixth International Conference on AIDS here, Luc Montagnier, the French co-discoverer of HIV, presented data showing that a bacteria-like organism known as a mycoplasma spurs a slowly-reproducing population of AIDS viruses into one that multiplies much faster - at least in cells growing in a dish. He suggested that in human beings, mycoplasma infection turns an otherwise benign HIV infection into a disease.

Montagnier's statement immediately drew criticism from a wide spectrum of other AIDS experts. They said it appeared to challenge a large body of research accumulated since the AIDS virus was discovered seven years ago.

Mycoplasma infections, which cause a number of diseases including pneumonia, have been thought for some time to be a one of several infections that attack the body along with with HIV, weakening the immune system further and possibly explaining why some people get sick faster than others.

But in a conclusion that drew deep skepticism from many AIDS researchers and mycoplasma specialists, Montagnier took the mycoplasma hypothesis even further, saying that he found it "quite feasible" that the microbe may be the critical additional factor that turns HIV from a "peaceful" virus into a killer. "This is not to say that HIV is not the primary agent, but there are serious shortcomings in the idea that it causes all the disease," Montagnier said.

"My feeling is that there will have to be a whole lot more work done before we can understand this," said Joseph G. Tully, a mycoplasmologist at the National Institutes of Health. "I don't know if I would go as far as he has at this point."

by CNB