Polio vaccines and the origin of AIDS

Association Between Simian Virus 40 and Human Tumors

Simian virus 40 (SV40) is a small DNA tumor virus of monkey origin. This polyomavirus was administered to human populations mainly through contaminated polio vaccines, which were produced in naturally infected SV40 monkey cells. Previous molecular biology and recent immunological assays have indicated that SV40 is spreading in human populations, independently from earlier SV40-contaminated vaccines. SV40 DNA sequences have been detected at a higher prevalence in specific human cancer specimens, such as the brain and bone tumors, malignant pleural mesotheliomas, and lymphoproliferative disorders, compared to the corresponding normal tissues/specimens. However, other investigations, which reported negative data, did not confirm an association between SV40 and human tumors. To circumvent the controversies, which have arisen because of these molecular biology studies, immunological researches with newly developed indirect ELISA tests were carried out in serum samples from patients affected by the same kind of tumors as mentioned above. These innovative indirect ELISAs employ synthetic peptides as mimotopes/specific SV40 antigens. SV40 mimotopes do not cross-react with the homologous human polyomaviruses, BKPyV, and JCPyV. Immunological data obtained from indirect ELISAs, using SV40 mimotopes, employed to analyze serum samples from oncological patients, have indicated that these sera had a higher prevalence of antibodies against SV40 compared to healthy subjects. The main data on (i) the biology and genetics of SV40; (ii) the epidemiology of SV40 in the general population, (iii) the mechanisms of SV40 transformation; (iv) the putative role of SV40 in the onset/progression of specific human tumors, and (v) its association with other human diseases are reported in this review.

The public perception of the value of vaccines - the case of Switzerland

Aim

In this original article, we seek to analyse the environment in which immunisation policies are adopted and, more specifically, the way the public perception of vaccines influences decision-making, by looking more closely at the case of Switzerland.

Subjects and methods

Historical and present-day examples of attitudes towards immunisation and specific vaccines, both on the part of the public and of health-care workers, are reviewed.

Results

Decision-making with regard to vaccine policy implementation has been and is still most often driven by fear: fear of disease (when perceived as rampant and/or dangerous), but also fear of vaccine-associated adverse events (when the disease is less or no longer “visible”). However, methodology for introducing evidence-based immunisation policies exists and can be used by public health authorities, while vaccination information systems (such as the Swiss InfoVac) have proven their usefulness in providing trustworthy, peer-based knowledge to health-care workers.

Conclusion

Only information based on clear, evidence-based data gathered and analysed according to solid methodological criteria coupled with adequate information of health-care workers (and thus patients) can ensure in future the implementation of scientifically coherent, publicly acceptable, and equitable immunisation policies.

The prospective preventative HIV vaccine based on modified poliovirus

In order to control HIV pandemic, many vaccines are invented. Although none first verified its efficacy in clinic, we hypothesize that HIV vaccine based on poliovirus is potential to develop the promising one, because it can elicit the broad immune response including the main mucosal, humoral and cellular reaction. However, the viral neural virulence is one major concern. The attenuated Sabin strain is a better candidate. While partial poliovirus genes are replaced by HIV antigen genes, the defective interfering particle will fail to produce progeny virions, which may further ensure its security. Although the vaccinal immune efficacy was verified in some similar animal experiments based on poliovirus to express the exogenous genes, more animal and clinical immune trials about HIV-poliovirus chimeric minireplicons are to be carried out and the hypotheses are to be validated.

The politics of a scientific meeting: the origin-of-AIDS debate at the Royal Society

The Royal Society of London held a scientific meeting in September 2000 focusing on two theories of the origin of AIDS: one, that it occurred through "natural transfer" of immunodeficiency virus from monkeys or chimpanzees to humans; and the other, that it occurred through iatrogenic transfer via contaminated polio vaccines used in Africa in the late 1950s. This meeting was the culmination of years of public contention over the polio-vaccine theory. Several dimensions of the politics of science are revealed by analysis of this issue, including the power of scientific editors, the use of the mass media, decisions regarding selection of speakers and organization of the meeting, and epistemological assumptions made by participants.

The burden of proof and the origin of acquired immune deficiency syndrome

There is a distinct difference in the way that different theories about the origin of acquired immune deficiency syndrome have been treated, with the widely supported cut-hunter theory given relatively little scrutiny, while the oral polio vaccine theory has been subject to intense criticism. This difference in treatment cannot be explained as application of the scientific method. A better explanation is that the burden of proof is put on all contenders to the cut-hunter theory, giving it an unfair advantage, especially given that this assignment of the burden of proof appears to reflect non-scientific factors.

The origin of acquired immune deficiency syndrome: Can science afford to ignore it?

There is a crisis of public faith in science and scientists. Recent research shows concern over scientific ethics, transparency and who benefits from research and development, exemplified in the genetically modified organism debate. Scientific discussion of the polio vaccine hypothesis for the origin of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has been systematically suppressed for more than 12 years. The author calls for an international multidisciplinary inquiry into the origin of AIDS, arguing it is essential to human health, prevention of new pandemics, and to protect the integrity of science in the eyes of the public.

Bridging the gap: human diploid cell strains and the origin of AIDS

Recent descriptions of the first human and chimpanzee cases of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-related retroviral infections dating from 1959 have stirred interest in the origin of AIDS. Although the theory of a chimpanzee origin of HIV-1 with cross-species transfer to man has now gained popularity, a more likely scenario is that chimps and humans were infected by an HIV-1 precursor virus derived from a contaminated poliovaccine. The reason for the rapidity and ease of cross-species transfer of this precursor virus has not been elucidated. We hypothesize that the poliovaccine was passaged in a human diploid cell strain. This simple manipulation allowed the retrovirus to adapt to human tissues and may have spawned the AIDS pandemic.

Challenges in the development of an effective HIV vaccine: current approaches and future directions

OBJECTIVE

The intent of this review is to investigate and discuss why developing a successful HIV vaccine has been so challenging, first by examining the molecular biology of the virus and how HIV interacts with the immune system, and then reviewing past viral vaccine successes as well as future directions for HIV vaccine research.

BACKGROUND

Since HIV appeared in the United States in the early 1980s, an estimated 40 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus. Despite promising advances in the pharmacotherapy of HIV infection, it is apparent that the best, most cost-effective strategy for controlling the further spread of the virus is through synthesis of a protective vaccine. Almost 2 decades into the epidemic, there are few prospects for a truly effective vaccine entering the market in the foreseeable future.

METHODS

MEDLINE was searched for articles written between 1966 and June 1999. Search terms used were AIDS, HIV vaccine, HIV-1, HIV-2, vaccines, and human immunodeficiency virus.

RESULTS

Only 2 candidates for an HIV vaccine are currently in phase III clinical trials (1 in the United States and 1 in Thailand). The efficacy of these vaccines when applied to the population as a whole is widely questioned, largely because they induce protection by an antibody response only. Several studies have suggested that this approach will likely be ineffective in providing any real protection from viral infection. It appears that a strong cellular immune response is necessary in addition to a strong antibody response.

The African polio vaccine-acquired immune deficiency syndrome connection

Seroepidemiological, clinical and molecular findings suggest that the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus human immunodeficiency virus-1 was introduced into the human species at the time (late 1950s) and in the geographic area (Zaire) in which millions of Africans were vaccinated with attenuated poliomyelitis virus strains that were produced in kidney tissue obtained from monkeys. Since monkeys not only harbor viruses that are remarkably similar to and genetically related to human immunodeficiency virus-1, but also served as tissue donors for the African polio vaccine, it is reasonable to suspect that a then non-detectable monkey virus with human-1-like properties was unknowingly co-cultured with the attenuated poliovirus virus and subsequently administered to the vaccinees. The possibility of such a polio vaccine-acquired immune deficiency syndrome connection is a reminder of the unpredictable danger of artifically crossing natural species-barriers in biomedical laboratories.