particles 100-120nM in diameter with a core compromising a protein shell and a ribonucleoprotein complex. RVP are further catergorised according to the site of core assembly, that is, within the cytoplasm or at the cell membrane, and by certain other morphological features. Included in this taxonomy are the Subfamilies Oncoviruses which include Type C and Type D particles, as well as the Subfamily Lentiviruses. Prior to the AIDS era, many retrovirologists showed that the finding of a particle with morphological features similar to retroviruses does not constitute sufficient proof that they are retroviruses, that they are infectious particles, even if they are found to band at 1.16 gm/ml.(18) In 1976 Gallo himself pointed out that in human leukemic tissue "virus-like particles morphologically and biochemically resembling type-C virus but apparently lacking the ability to replicate, have been frequently observed".(28) Particles with the morphological characteristics of retroviruses were reported in milk, cultures of embryonic tissues and "in the majority, if not all, human placentas".(29,30,31) However, they were considered to be "an intriguing and important problem that remains to be solved".(32) Evidence from AIDS research shows that: 1. There is no agreement on the precise taxonomic classification of HIV. Initially, HIV was reported as an Oncoviral type-C particle, then a type-D particle,(33) and ultimately as a member of a different Subfamily, a Lentivirus;(34) 2. The T-cell and monocyte "HIV infected cultures" contain in addition to particles with morphologies attributed to HIV, many other "viral particles" unlike any of the "HIV particles".(35,36,37,38) "Non-HIV-infected" HT (H9) cells, the cell line from which the Gallo team "isolated" the first HIV (HTLV-III) and from which most of the published electron micrographs of "HIV particles" have originated, as well as other cells used for "HIV isolation", CEM, C8166, EBV transformed B-...
