Mikulas Popovic

TL;DR: Peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or with signs or symptoms that frequently precede AIDS (pre-AIDS) were grown in vitro with added T-cell growth factor and assayed for the expression and release of human T-lymphotropic retroviruses (HTLV).

TL;DR: A cell system was developed for the reproducible detection of human T-lymphotropic retroviruses (HTLV family) from patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or with signs or symptoms that frequently precede AIDS (pre-AIDS), and it provides large amounts of virus for detailed molecular and immunological analyses.

TL;DR: It is suggested that mononuclear phagocytes may serve as primary targets for infection and agents for virus dissemination and that these virus-infected cells may play a role in the pathogenesis of the disease.

TL;DR: Whether or not HTLV-I or other retroviruses of this family with T-cell tropism cause AIDS, it is possible that patients from whom the virus can be isolated can also transmit it to others.

TL;DR: Serum samples from 88 percent of patients with AIDS and from 79 percent of homosexual men with signs and symptoms that frequently precede AIDS, but from less than 1 percent of heterosexual subjects, have antibodies reactive against antigens of HTLV-III, and the major immune reactivity appears to be directed against p41, the presumed envelope antigen of the virus.