Hausen

Monday October 6, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Three European scientists who discovered two types of viruses, HIV and HPV, were selected to receive this year's Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology.

Harald zur Hausen, a German virologist at University of Düsseldorf, will claim half the award ($1.4 million) for his discovery of HPV short for the human papilloma virus, announced Monday by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.  

Hausen's discovery led to development of a vaccine against vaccine against cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer affecting an estimated 500,000 women worldwide and kills 300,000 each year.   But the efficacy of the vaccines remains largely unknown.

Barre-sinoussi

The other half the award will go to two French virologists, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi at Institut Pasteur and Luc Montagnier at World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention for their discovering HIV, the AIDS-causing virus that affects currently 33 million people and have killed an estimated 25 million worldwide.

HPV virus, a sexually transmitted virus, was first found by Dr. zur Hausen in biopsies of women who had cervical cancer in 1983.   Later two strains HPV 16 and 18 were cloned, which are consistently present in about 17 percent of cervical cancer biopsies and have become the targets of HPV vaccines.

So far more than 100 HPV strains have been found and about 15 of them can increase risk of cervical cancer. The virus is also believed to some cases of vulval, penile, oral and other types of cancers.   The virus was said to be found in 99.7% of women with historically confirmed cervical cancer.   HPV is responsible for more than 5% of all cancer worldwide, the New York Times reports.

Montagnier

The Karolinska Institute said the discovery of HIV has led to development of blood tests and antiviral drugs that are effective in prolonging the lives of the HIV carriers.   Blood tests are also used to prevent tainted blood from getting into blood supply for transfusion.

Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier are also recognized for their identification of virus−host interactions which has “provided information on how HIV evades the host’s immune system by impairing lymphocyte function, by constantly changing and by hiding its genome in the host lymphocyte DNA, making its eradication in the infected host difficult even after long-term antiviral treatment.”

About the recipients cited from the Nobel Foundation:

Harald zur Hausen, born 1936 in Germany, German citizen, MD at University of Düsseldorf, Germany. Professor emeritus and former Chairman and Scientific Director, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany.

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, born 1947 in France, French citizen, PhD in virology, Institut Pasteur, Garches, France. Professor and Director, Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit, Virology Department, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.

Luc Montagnier, born 1932 in France, French citizen, PhD in virology, University of Paris, Paris, France. Professor emeritus and Director, World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, Paris, France.