IMPERIAL CANCER RESEARCH FUND LABORATORIES

Registered Charity No. 209631

P.O. BOX NO. 123
LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
LONDON, WC2A 3PX

Dr. Harold E. Varmus
Department of Microbiology
University of California
San Francisco, California 94143
U.S.A.

Cables: Cancerch
Tel: 01-242 0200
Telex: 265107 ICRF

22nd April

G

1985

Dear Harold,

  I enclose a letter received from Daniel Zagury (unsolicited) regarding the nomen-
clature of HTLV-3/LAV/ARV/IDAV.

  I wish that I could suggest a neutral but acceptable name for the virus, but problems
arise with every suggestion.  (a) HRV for human retrovirus; too unspecific.  (b) SIDA virus
for the French acronym for AIDS, but shades of AIDS disease mentioned below; however, it
gives a slight compliment to the French without using their versions of names or Gallo's.

          Poliovirus was acceptable even though the vast majority of infected
persons remained asymptomatic. However, with AIDS, the social and economic implications
and stigma may be too overriding.

  (2) HTLV-3. While I think that the HTLV acronym is very apt (regarding tropism and
without connoting disease), and am not overly worried that the hybridization data show little
homology to types  1 and 2, there is still the original French claim and the consequent
conten ti on.

   (3) LAV, IDAV. The first acronym certainly has chronological priority; the second was
begging the issue due to interim usage by the French of HTLV - an unfortunate lapse on
their part. My real objection to LAV resides in the vernacular usage as described below.

(4) ARV. With due regard for Jay, this was clearly a "johnny-come-lately" claim.

  (5) HTLV-3/LAV. Such combined terms are unwieldy. On the other hand, that could
be the officially acceptable version and then each author could choose his own favorite
shortened version for use in manuscripts.

  (6) HALV. Just saw Flossie's letter to Nature. She would have been better off to
submit the proposal to you rather than to Nature, as a suggestion from her is unlikely to go
down well with the French.  Of course, there is also the objection that HaLV - is officially
accepted for hamster leukemia virus (not that one sees many papers on it).

      HLAV.  A variation on theme (6), this has the advantages of not clashing with
HaLV and not being introduced by Flossie. It could also be defined as human lymphotropic
(Gallo group) adenopathy (Montagnier group) virus, - without a reference to AIDS per - se.

  As mentioned in my previous letter, the homosexual community in the U.K. has
already adopted HTLV-3 in common speech. Have similar developments occurred in the U.S.

(1) AIDS virus.

(7)

2

or elsewhere?  If the English-speaking vernacular is HTLV, does that set any precedent
(particularly as the majority of worldwide infected individu~s will be English-speaking)?
  Those are my basic thoughts on the issue. I assume that you will come up with a short

list for discussion and voting by some or all of the members of the committee.
  Please let me know if you wish any of these points clarified or whatever.
  With kind regards.

Yours sincerely,

%.-&

Natalie M. Teich