Isolation of a T-Lymphotropic Retrovirus from a Patient at Risk for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
The authors reported the isolation of a novel retrovirus from a lymph-node biopsy of a patient with lymphadenopathy considered at risk for AIDS. The virus exhibited magnesium-dependent reverse transcriptase activity, budded as a type-C particle, and showed tropism for T lymphocytes, but was antigenically and biologically distinct from the known human T-cell leukemia viruses (HTLV-I/II). This agent—later designated lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV) and subsequently recognized as HIV—was proposed as a candidate cause of AIDS.