Pioneer Deplores HIV

Author	Etienne De Harven
Publisher	Continuum
Category	HIV Isolation
Topic	HIV Isolation Validity HIV Purification
Article Type	Editorial Article
Publish Year	1997

Meta Description	Etienne de Harven, a pioneer in retrovirus research, criticizes the dismissal of electron microscopy in favor of "markers" in HIV research, leading to wasted efforts.
Summary	This is a letter written by Dr. Etienne de Harven, a pioneer in the field of electron microscopy, expressing his concerns about the use of electron microscopy in retrovirus research. He shares a picture he published in 1965 showing the successful purification of a virus using electron microscopy. He explains that electron microscopy was gradually dismissed in retrovirus research after 1970, and molecular biologists started relying on other markers to determine virus purity. However, in 1997, elementary electron microscopy controls were performed, revealing disastrous results. Dr. de Harven laments the wasted efforts and billions of research dollars spent on HIV research. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of proper scientific controls and questioning the HIV/AIDS hypothesis.
Meta Tag	Etienne de Harven Electron Microscopy Retrovirus Research HIV Research Virus Purification Leukemia Sloan Kettering Institute University of Toronto Molecular Biologists Markers Sucrose Gradient HIV/AIDS Hypothesis
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Featured Image Alt Tag	Keyword of the image

By Etienne de Harven, MD
Continuum Winter 1997
https://www.virusmyth.com/aids/news/edhlettercont.htm

Etienne de Harven, MD
"Le Mas Pitou"
2879 Route de Grasse
06530 Saint Cézaire sur Siagne
France
Tel. & Fax: (33) 4 93 60 28 39
E-mail: Pitou.Deharven@wanadoo.fr

I published the following picture in 1965 in a paper entitled Viremia in Friend Leukemia: the electron microscope approach to the problem which appeared in Pathologie-Biologie, vol 13, pp. 125-134. Transmission electron microscopy was used to verify the success of a method for virus purfication which I had developed when working at the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York. The method was as follows: About 20 ml of blood from leukemic DBA/2 mice was collected, blood cells were removed by low speed centrifugation and the plasma was diluted 1/1 with cold heparinized Ringer's solution. The diluted plasma was cleared from contaminating debris by two consecutive steps of Millipore ultrafiltration, using pore size 0.65 µ first and 0.22 µ next. The second filtrate was then spun at high speed at 30000 g for 2 hours. The resulting pellet, about 1 mm in diameter, was immediately fixed with osmium tetroxide, embedded in epoxy resin and prepared for electron microscopy by routine thin sectioning methods. Aliquots of the unfixed pellet were resuspended in Ringer's solution and used for titration of the leukemogenic activity in adult DBA/2 mice, known to be 100% susceptible to the virus. It. was that simple!

The picture shows, at a magnification of 19500 x, an almost pure population of typical "type C" viruses (not yet called retrovirus in 1965....). Three arrows point at contaminating debris and microvesicles. The interpretation of these EM pictures was that virus purification was satisfactory and that contamination rate was extremely low.

Dangerously enough, EM was progressively dismissed in retrovirus research after 1970. Molecular biologists started to rely exclusively on various "markers", and what was sedimenting in sucrose gradient at density 1.16 gm/ml was regarded as "pure virus". It is only in 1997, after fifteen years of intensive HIV research, that elementary EM controls were performed, with the disastrous results recently reviewed in Continuum. How many wasted efforts, how many billions of research dollars gone in smoke...

Horrible.

Errare humanum est sed diabolicum perseverare....

Etienne de Harven, MD

Member of The Group for the Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis
Prof. Emerit. (Pathology) University of Toronto

Dr. Etienne de Harven is emeritus Professor of Pathology, University of Toronto. He worked in electron microscopy (EM) primarily on the ultrastructure of retroviruses throughout his professional career of 25 years at the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York and 13 years at the University of Toronto. In 1956 he was the first to report on the EM of the Friend virus in murine (mouse) leukemia, and in 1960, to coin the word "budding" to describe steps of virus assembly on cell surfaces. Above a letter and photo he sent to Continuum. (London)