No proof HIV antibodies are caused by a retroviral infection

From these data HIV infection in Papua New Guinea was depicted as ‘an unfolding disaster’ – a conclusion requiring proof that the reactivity is due to a retroviral infection HIV. In order to perform an antibody test for HIV infection one must first obtain the HIV antigens. That is, the proteins of a particle stated to be a unique and taxonomically distinct Lentivirus of the family Retroviridae. However, the particles that Montagnier and Gallo reported in their unpurified cell culture supernatants were not a Lentivirus but other genuses. According to Montagnier, credited as the discoverer of HIV, ‘analysis of the proteins of the virus demands mass production and purification’. 2 In 1983 Montagnier and in 1984 Gallo claimed to have purified HIV particles by banding culture supernatant in a sucrose density gradient and to have proven the existence of both HIV proteins and antibodies. However, first neither Montagnier nor Gallo published electron micrographs of ‘purified virus’; and second in 1997 Montagnier stated neither he nor Gallo had evidence for HIV purification and that, despite a ‘Roman effort’, his ‘purified virus’ did not even contain particles with ‘the morphology typical of retroviruses’, much less purified retroviral particles. 2 Instead, the reaction between some proteins in the density gradient banded material (‘purified virus’), and antibodies in AIDS patient sera, was considered proof that both the proteins and antibodies were ‘HIV’. The fact that an antibody reacts with an antigen is not proof the antibody arises in response to that antigen. All antibodies including monoclonal antibodies may react (‘cross-react’) with non-immunizing antigens, and immunologists accept that ‘Cross-reactive antibodies may have higher affinity with antigens other than the inducing antigen’. 3 Therefore, patients may possess antibodies that react with antigens to which they have neither been exposed, nor with which they have been infected. Otherwise one would have to conclude that patients with Ebstein–Barr virus infection are ‘infected’ with sheep and horse erythrocytes; those with group A streptococcal or Treponema pallidum infections are ‘infected’ with heart muscle proteins; and that blood group A individuals are ‘infected’ with group B erythrocytes and vice versa. Cross-reactions are more prevalent in individuals with increased levels of immunoglobulins. High levels of antibodies are a feature of AIDS patients and sick individuals in general. Positive antibody tests have been reported in thousands of hospital patients at no risk of AIDS. 4 Cross-reactivity is the stated reason ‘active measles infection’ results in antibodies that react with the ‘HIV-specific’ gag and pol gene antigens. 5