UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO

...........

BERKELEY - DAVIS * IRVINE LOS ANGELES RIVERSIDE - SAN DIEGO * SAN FRANCISCO ! SANTA BARBARA * SANTA CRUZ

..............

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Department of Microbiology

and Immunology

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94143

May 24, 1985

10: Members of the human retrovirus subcommittee of

the Retrovirus Study Group

FROM: Harold Varmus

I am enclosing two sets of documents for study and comment: a co!lection of
proposals for naming human AIDS virus isolates and a group of letters that
provide advice or endorsements of other proposals. You will find a surprisingyy
large number of names advanced, including those already in use (see Table).
Many of these are variations on the same theme (e.g., dependent upon the chojce
of letters to emphasize in the acronym), but there are other djfferences that
represent fundamentally distinct attitudes towards nomenclature. These range
from the non-discriminatory approach of numbering distinct human retroviruses in
order of isolation (e.g., human retrovirus-1, -2, etc.) to approaches based upon
disease association (e.g., human AIDS or AIDS-related viruses), pathogenetic
mechanism (e.g., human immunodeficiencyfvirus or immunosuppression virus), cell
tropism (human T cell lymphotropic virus), or combinations of these features
(e.g., human T lymphocyte destroying virus).

In responding to these suggestions, you should keep in mind several aspects of
the problem: the basis for speciating viruses as described in my earlier
mailing; the characteristics of the virus, If any, to be emphasized by the
choice of the name; the acceptibility of names to the scientific and clinical
communities; the precedents for choice of names in retrovirology (i.e., should
we conform to the use of host species and "virus," rather than "retrovirus," in
the name?); the devices that could be used to designate individual isolates of a
species (an issue not formally in our purview); the effects of our choice upon
the names for other human retroviruses (e.g., HTLV-1, human foamy viruses); and,
I suppose inevitably, the realpoljtik of what is likely to be used by those
working with the viruses, independent of theoretical consideratsons.

I would like to have some response from everyone within a week of receiving this
letter. Responses may be simple statements of preferences or point-by-point
analyses of the various proposals. All are requested to return a straw ballot
that is also enclosed. I hope with this vote to get some idea of the likelihood
of reaching an agreement, with or without a meeting of at least some members of
our group.

Names Proposed

Acronyms

Human ret ro vi ru s - 3
Human AIDS virus (or AIDS-associated virus)
AIDS-associated retrovirus
Human AIDS-related retrovirus
Human AIDS retrovirus
Lymphoadenopathy-AIDS virus
Human AIDS-lymphotropic virus

Human T cell lymphotropi c virus-I11
Human T lymphotropic retrovirus
Human lymphotropic retrovirus
Human T lymphocyte destroying virus
Human T cell immunodepressant (or cytocidal) virus
Human immunodeficiency virus
Human immunosuppression virus

(or lymphotropic AIDS-causing virus)

HRV-3, or HR-3
HAV (or AAV)
ARV
HARV
HAR
LAV
HALV (or HLAV)

HTLV-I I I
HTLR
HLRV
HTLDV
HTIV (or HTCV)
HIDV
HISV (or HIV)