Everything is a Co-Factor

Yesterday I received an email from a "nobody" at the NCBI. Since my address is "outis[email protected]" (from Odysseus' taunt of "no body" to the one-eyed monster), I thought the return address amusing, even if not intentional.

When I examined the contents of the email, I was again pleasantly (sort of) surprised -- this time to discover that Prof. Duesberg's chemical-AIDS hypothesis has been receiving a lot more attention than the minions of AIDS, Inc. and their media lap dogs would let on. Although, as always the perspective is slightly askew.

From: [email protected]

This message contains search results from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Do not reply directly to this message.

Sent on Sunday, 2006 Nov 19 GMT

Springer Semin Immunopathol. 2006 Nov;28(3):281-287. Epub 2006 Oct 13.

Injecting drugs of abuse and immunity: implications for HIV vaccine testing and efficacy.

• Ugen KE,
• Nyland SB.

Department of Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33612, USA.

The recreational use of legal and illegal drugs has significant effects on immune responses and can potentially modulate susceptibility to infection by a number of pathogens. A number of agents including cannabinoids (marijuana), cocaine opiates, amphetamines, nicotine and alcohol were demonstrated to have potentially adverse effects on the susceptibility to infections, mediated most likely, by adverse effects on immunity. As such, these drugs of abuse could have significant and potentially adverse effects on the vaccination efficacy of a number of vaccines currently on the market and on potential experimental vaccines currently in the pipeline. This review will present an overview on how drugs of abuse potentially impacts immune responses and vaccination efficacy. The emphasis of this review will be the effects of opiate abuse, as exemplified by injecting/intravenous drug users (IDU), on HIV/AIDS and its potential impact on vaccine efficacy trials against this devastating infection/syndrome.

PMID: 17109182 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Related Links

• Addictive drugs and their relationship with infectious diseases. [FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol. 2006] PMID: 16872369
• Microbial infections, immunomodulation, and drugs of abuse. [Clin Microbiol Rev. 2003] PMID: 12692094
• [Frontier of mycobacterium research--host vs. mycobacterium] [Kekkaku. 2005] PMID: 16245793
• Opiates as potential cofactors in progression of HIV-1 infections to AIDS. [J Neuroimmunol. 1998] PMID: 9610676
• "Why I am not infected with HIV": implications for long-term HIV risk reduction and HIV vaccine trials. [J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr Hum Retrovirol. 1997] PMID: 9420319

Comments

[George]

I seem to recall that the most shameless crook on the board of AIDS Inc., Robert Gallo, once loudly and passionalely disclaimed that "HIV was a Mack truck that could kill Superman" (I am sorry I do not have the exact reference, but I think it was circa 1988 and was in an interview with Anthony Liversidge that appeared in Spin magazine).

I find it more than disgusting that over the years the Mack Truck has turned into a bicycle with training wheels and not a single, solitary newspaper or television 'reporter' (and I use the term with total contempt) has seen fit to tell anybody.

[Glider]

Here's what Gallo said in the '88 Spin interview with Liversidge:

"HIV would cause AIDS in Clark Kent, given the right dose and the right strain of the virus. Given the right dose and right route of administration and the right time in someone's life. Alone in and of itself. No doubt in mind."

Otis: Thanks. But I too remember a Mack Truck allusion from this master of flim flam language. Perhaps it was made at another time.

[Chris Tyler]

And funny how chimpanzees are unaffected by this 'Mack Truck'.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/277/5325/471

Although from Gallo's very own Institute of Human Virology, 'Grade 4 events are as important as AIDS events in the era of HAART.'

"Data were analyzed from 2,947 patients enrolled from December 1996 through December 2001. All patients were to receive antiretrovirals...

During follow-up, 675 patients experienced a grade 4 event...; 332 developed an AIDS event...; and 272 died... The first grade 4 event and the first AIDS event were associated with similar risks of death, 5.68 and 6.95, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Grade 4 events are as important as AIDS events in the era of HAART. To adequately evaluate the impact of HAART on morbidity, comorbidities and other key factors must be carefully assessed."

Seems like humans are hit like a 'Mack Truck' by these 'HIV' drugs. Gallo is such a buffoon.

Chris

[Celia Farber]

Anthony Liversidge did a second interview with Gallo in SPIN, in or around 1989 I believe. I was the editor then, of SPIN's AIDS column so perhaps I should remember, but I don't. I do think the truck metaphor might be in that one.

SPIN's AIDS column 'Words From The Front' was launched in the fall of 1987; My interview with Peter Duesberg was the second installment of that unloved column, immediately followed, the next month, by Liversidge's Gallo interview, which I consider one of the best pieces of AIDS reportage ever. I remember vividly that editors Robert Keating and Legs McNeil went to Mr. Liversidge's apartment to collect the tape and manuscript.

This is making me feel very old.

[Otis]

Both interviews with Gallo are available at Virusmyth.com (Find: Liversidge).

The first of which contains two Gallo gems that George more or less combined. The "Mack Truck" one is as follows:

"Look, it's utter nonsense, destructive nonsense, it can boomerang not only in his face, but in the lives of people. Dangerous nonsense. The evidence is overwhelming that this is the cause of the disease. We have more evidence that this virus causes AIDS than we have for virtually any other disease known to man, save that which we have prevented with a vaccine. Hit by a truck is the analogy I like to use."

Did somebody say buffoon?