Origins of HIV: Polio vaccine cleared

New evidence from three separate laboratories pours cold water on claims that contaminated polio vaccines may have introduced the AIDS virus into humans. It was suggested that chimpanzee kidney cultures allegedly used in the preparation of oral polio vaccine stocks used in Africa during the late 1950s could have introduced a precursor of HIV-1 into humans. But now PCR amplification of frozen samples of the suspect vaccine has failed to reveal any HIV-1-related nucleic acids or chimpanzee mitochondrial DNA. In addition the evidence points to the use of macaque monkey cells, rather than chimpanzee in the vaccines in question. And finally, a phylogenetic study of modern HIV-1 strains identifies the last common ancestor of HIV-1 group M as a virus present in a human host, rather than as a single transfer from another primate.

Polio vaccine samples not linked to AIDS
PHILIPPE BLANCOU, JEAN-PIERRE VARTANIAN, CINDY CHRISTOPHERSON, NICOLE CHENCINER, CLAUDIO BASILICO, SHIRLEY KWOK & SIMON WAIN-HOBSON
A search through the archives clears early vaccines of starting the AIDS pandemic.
Nature 410, 1045-1046 (26 April 2001)
| Full Text | PDF (195 K) | Supplementary Information |

Vaccine safety: Analysis of oral polio vaccine CHAT stocks
N. BERRY, C. DAVIS, A. JENKINS, D. WOOD, P. MINOR, G. SCHILD, M. BOTTIGER, H. HOLMES & N. ALMOND
Nature 410, 1046-1047 (26 April 2001)
| Full Text | PDF (151 K) |

Human immunodeficiency virus: Phylogeny and the origin of HIV-1
ANDREW RAMBAUT, DAVID L. ROBERTSON, OLIVER G. PYBUS, MARTINE PEETERS & EDWARD C. HOLMES
Nature 410, 1047-1048 (26 April 2001)
| Full Text | PDF (172 K) | Supplementary Information |

Polio vaccines exonerated
ROBIN A. WEISS
One theory about the origin of the AIDS pandemic is that the virus responsible, HIV, was transmitted to humans from chimpanzees through contaminated polio vaccine. That theory fails some crucial tests.
Nature 410, 1035-1036 (26 April 2001)
| Full Text | PDF (349 K) |

Polio researcher innocent of HIV pandemic
HIV is widely believed to have appeared when the closely related simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) jumped from a chimpanzee to a human, probably in West Africa in the early twentieth century. Exactly how the first human was infected is not known, but one theory that incited particularly vigorous debate has now been laid to rest. (26 April 2001)

lifelines: The River without a paddle
Three new studies may finally have put paid to the polio-vaccine hypothesis for HIV's origins

26 April 2001 table of contents