Novel and medical soap opera

2008/10/25 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Mikrobiologia
• Medikuntza
• Etika
• Sariak

This year three researchers have been awarded in this field. Half of the prize will be awarded to the German Harald zur Hausen for identifying the human papilomavirus and demonstrating that it is the cause of cervical cancer. The other half is aimed at researchers Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montaigner, equally, for identifying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

And Robert Gallo just mentioned it. Its name appears in the report published by the Nobel Foundation among researchers who continued to investigate the virus. But some people think it is an injustice not to reward Gallo. Montaigner himself, when told that he won the Novel, was surprised by his "grief" for Gallo.

To a certain extent, it is surprising that Montaigner was so generous now that for years he has been struggling with Gallo for the discovery of the HIV virus. AIDS was first described in 1981 in the United States. Soon a virus was suspected and researchers around the world began to work on their search.

Thus, the Montaigner team began to investigate with patient samples. Lymphocytes extirpated to the sick grew in cultures and from there isolated a virus. He was called LAV. A year later, in 1984, the American Gallo described a new virus. This virus was found in patients with AIDS or in the early stages and was called HTLV-III. That same year, another American, Jay Levy, found a virus called ARV in patients with AIDS who had lymphadenopathy.

French and American researchers agreed that the three viruses were the same virus and in 1985 an international group in charge of the taxonomy of the viruses decided to call the virus GIB-1: Human immunodeficiency virus type 1.

This is how the story is told in the Nobel Foundation report. However, not everyone has such clear things, and the truth is that it was not going to be a clear question, because for many years Montaigner and Gallo have faced each other, saying that the first discoverer of the virus has been the same and not the other. Was the struggle only for honor? No, there was also money.

In fact, in Gallo's laboratory a test was developed to diagnose AIDS using HIV antibodies. And it seems that he used Montaigner viruses for this purpose. It seems that in 1983 Montaigner moved to the United States, to a meeting, where he kept the viruses in the refrigerator of Gallo's house. Gallo did not return the viruses and the laboratory had the product ready to patent it for the following year.

Finally, in 1987, Ronald Reagan and Jacques Chirac shut down the debate, indicating that the discoverers of the virus were alike and that the benefits of the patent would be shared equally between the two countries. Gradually, the relationship between Montaigner and Gallo softened, and in 2002 they wrote together an essay in the journal Science.

Now, however, the debate has resurfaced. But the Nobel Prize has published something else, or rather someone else: Françoise Barré-Sinoussi. This woman has been unknown so far, but from the beginning she worked with Montaigner on the discovery of the HIV virus. This is what the Nobel Foundation has recognized, so it will receive a quarter of the Novel (half of half). Congratulations.

Published in Gara