Oxidative Stress, HIV and AIDS

As long ago as 1983, one of us (E.P.-E.) proposed that oxidative mechanisms are of critical significance in the genesis of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). A prediction of this hypothesis was that the mechanisms responsible for AIDS could be reversed by the administration of reducing agents, especially those containing sulphydryl groups (SH groups). The discovery of HIV resulted in a broadening of this hypothesis in that it considered oxidative stress as a principal mechanism in both the development of AIDS and expression of HIV (Papadopulos-Eleopulos, 1988; Papadopulos-Eleopulos et al., 1989). However, the general acceptance of the HIV hypothesis of AIDS completely overshadowed this alternative hypothesis, and although many other scientists have questioned the role of HIV in the causation of AIDS (Duesberg, 1987; Root-Bernstein, 1990) Robert Gallo and most AIDS researchers consider HIV to be the sole "sine qua non " cause of AIDS. Notwithstanding, some flaws, especially recently, have appeared which cast serious doubt on the prevailing HIV/AIDS hypothesis. Luc Montagnier, the discoverer of HIV, is presently of the opinion that cofactors are necessary for the appearance of AIDS (Lemaitre et al., 1990). It has been accepted by researchers at the CDC that KS (Kaposi's sarcoma), the first and most specific of the AIDS indicator diseases, for which the explanation of the HIV hypothesis was put forward by Gallo in 1982, is not caused directly or indirectly by HIV (Beral et al., 1990). On the other hand, recent empirical observations from three seemingly unrelated areas of AIDS research are in agreement with the hypothesis that oxidative mechanisms play a critical role in HIV expression and AIDS development. (1) Pompidou et al. (1985a) and more recently researchers from many other institutions (Lang e