Letter from Dr. Etienne de Harven to Dr. Luc Montagnier

Feb. 5^th 2004
Translated from French

Professor Luc Montagnier,
Foundation for AIDS Research,
1, rue Miollis,
75015 PARIS.

Dear Mr. Montagnier,

I was delighted with the opportunity to see you again, in Brussels on Dec. 8 [2003], during the debate organized by Paul Lannoye at the European Parliament.

If my recollection is correct, you told me you did not have the reference for the paper written by Eleni Papadopoulos in 1988 regarding the hypothesis she had presented at that time, and according to which oxidative stress is a possible cause for AIDS. I am sending you, here enclosed, a copy of this paper published in “Medical Hypotheses”. As far as I know, Eleni Papadopoulos was the first author who presented that hypothesis. Reading her paper again, I find plenty of original ideas (for 1988!). I would be most interested to hear your comments?

I am too far from Paris! I would so much love to have a chance to chat with you on questions that I am still considerably preoccupied with. Basically, three are very much in my mind:

1. How can we understand the absence of retroviral particles in the blood of patients identified as presenting with a high viral load?
2. How can we ignore the possibility that the typical retroviral particles shown in your historical 1983 publication are not simply endogenous retroviruses from cord blood lymphocytes, that had been admixed to your cell cultures, that could have been activated by the particular cell culture conditions, and that they therefore do not prove an exogenous infection originating from your patient? Sandra Panem had clearly demonstrated, in 1978, that the human placenta was exceptionally rich in endogenous retrovirus, and one can hardly imagine, therefore, that cord blood lymphocytes are not also carrying similar endogenous retroviruses??
3. It has been clearly demonstrated that protease inhibitors have a strong antibiotic effect on Pneumocystic carinii and on Candida albicans How could we exclude, therefore, that the frequently spectacular clinical effects of tri–therapies in severely progressing AIDS patients are not simply resulting from the effects of the protease inhibitors on opportunistic infections, and do not in any way prove an antiretroviral effect??

These are the three main questions I so much would like to discuss with you if I had the opportunity to chat with you along the Seine River! Do you occasionally come to the Alpes Maritimes? If so, give me a call (04 93 60 28 39).

Hoping that you shall find the time to give me your thoughts on all of this, I am sending you, dear Mr. Montagnier, the expression of my very best regards.

Etienne de Harven.