erything else, and not the detection of some phenomena attributed to it (RT, WB), or similar to it, (RVP). Phenomena can only be used for retroviral detection, not isolation, and even then if, and only if, it is first shown that each is specific for the virus by use of the only valid gold standard, HIV itself, "HIV isolation". It is important to note that in the earlier (1983) report by Montagnier's group on HIV (LAV) isolation, the same experimental procedures and findings as those described by Gallo were reported. The only exception was that Montagnier's group did not "infect" an immortalised cell line, yet Gallo's group considered that Montagnier and his colleagues had not described "true isolation".(6) In fact, in 1984, evidence existed that RT, antigen-antibody reactions (WB), and RVP, are non- specific for retroviruses. The indirect evidence, that is, evidence that has been obtained without a gold standard from recent AIDS research, has confirmed the above. Reverse transcriptase Although Gallo has described the enzyme reverse transcriptase as "unique to retroviruses", this is not the case, a fact stressed by its discoverers, (both Nobel laureates).(17) Reverse transcription can be found in leukaemic T-cells,24 (HT and its clones including H9, from which the first "HTLV-III (HIV) virus was isolated", is a leukaemic cell line), normal spermatozoa,25 and, according to Harold Varmus, another Nobel laureate, more recently, in the uninfected cells of yeasts insects and mammals.(26) As far back as 1973, Gallo himself was the first to show that RT can be found in "PHA stimulated (but not unstimulated) normal human blood lymphocytes".(24) Confirmation of this was reported at the 1991 Florence AIDS conference where evidence was presented that the drug AZT can inhibit the action of normal cellular RT,27 and this was postulated as a mechanism for drug toxicity. Retroviral particles. By definition, retroviral particles are enveloped infectious...
