2023-05-20 05:57:00
Once the AIDS virus was “isolated” in 1983, a “race once morest time” began to understand how it worked and find ways to counter it, remembers Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, then a retrovirologist at the Pasteur Institute.
How was the virus responsible for AIDS identified?
It all started in 1982 with a meeting with clinical colleagues who shared their observations with the first French patients. They were indeed convinced that a retrovirus might be responsible for this new disease.
I had personally started working in 1971 on this particular family of viruses called retroviruses because their genetic material is RNA which needs to be transformed into DNA in order to integrate into the genetic material of cells.
In January 1983, our strategy was to obtain a ganglion from a sick patient, to culture the cells of this ganglion and to look for a very specific enzymatic activity of these retroviruses.
The idea of the clinicians was that the only known human retrovirus (HTLV1) might be responsible for AIDS, but our team did not believe in this hypothesis because this virus causes a proliferation of lymphocytes, but there the patients lost them. Something was wrong.
In May 1983, we had isolated the virus, we had demonstrated that it was a retrovirus, different from HTLV1, but we were not yet certain that it was the cause of AIDS. We had the confirmation in 1984.
What happened once the virus was isolated?
From there, the work was enormous, because we had before us a virus that was not known: we had to learn everything regarding it, know the proteins that make it up, its genetic material, what type of cell it infects, the consequences of this infection…
It was also necessary to develop serological tests very quickly both for diagnosis and to carry out large surveys aimed at demonstrating that the virus only infected AIDS patients and not other patients.
Only then might we try to consider strategies to try to block it.
It was a race once morest time because we realized that the virus was transmitted by blood, sexually and from mother to child.
It was necessary to mobilize other teams: immunologists, molecular biologists, clinicians and patients, knowing that at the time we would not have time to find a treatment to save them. We found ourselves face to face with people who came to the Institut Pasteur to ask us questions regarding the virus. Humanly speaking, it was very difficult.
Your years of research were rewarded in 2008 with the Nobel Prize, shared with Luc Montagnier. What was your reaction ?
When I heard regarding it, I was in Cambodia. It was a huge surprise, I did not expect it at all.
People living with HIV in this country came to me with smiles and bouquets of flowers. I understood that this award recognized a community that had worked together from the beginning.
I suddenly realized that I had a responsibility: it was my duty to be the voice of those affected by AIDS.
All levels of society have been affected by HIV-AIDS, which has always been a multiple battle: scientific of course, but also political, societal, once morest pharmaceutical companies…
When I started, I was a researcher who never left her laboratory. I suddenly found myself faced with things that I never imagined possible, such as the general public’s lack of tolerance towards certain populations. At the time, the patients were stigmatized, let go by their families, their friends, sometimes health professionals. Some lost their homes, their jobs.
I also learned a lot regarding inequalities which unfortunately may have worsened even more today in rich countries.
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