Quite some years ago, perhaps more than five years ago, I read an
article written by Prof. Peter Duesberg on his thesis that AIDS is
facilitated, if not caused by drug use in particular amphetamines.  He
calculated the astronomical number of dexedrine molecules in a typical
dose and compared that to (I think) the number of mitochondria in the
body in an effort to show how the drug use overwhelmed the body's
energy producting mitochondria.  I would like to find and reread that
particular paper if it is still around.

---

Request for Question Clarification by knowledge_seeker-ga on 21 Sep 2004 04:44 PDT

Hi ishimon, 

I see nothing by Duesberg specifically mentioning either dexadrine or
mitochondria. While he does refer to amphetamines in general, his main
focus seems to be the recreational use of the inhalant, Amyl Nitrate.
Could that be the drug you are thinking of? I have found several
articles (1992, 1993) describing the dosage and action of that drug
and comparisons to the number of cells in the human body.

?Amyl nitrite (AM-il NYE-trite) is related to the nitrate medicines
and is used by inhalation to relieve the pain of angina attacks?..On
the street, this medicine and others like it are sometimes called
"poppers." They have been used by some people to cause a "high" or to
improve sex.?

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/uspdi/202034.html

-K~

---

Clarification of Question by ishimon-ga on 21 Sep 2004 05:25 PDT

Hello knowledge_seeker-ga and thank you...

Agreed that Duesberg cites amyl nitrate as a prime suspect, (I had
forgotten)  but this is definitely not what I had in mind.

If I remember correctly, in an early paper he was trying to illustrate
a mechanism by which drug use could diminish immune response (I am
phrasing this for effect; I am not expert in this field and so
Duesberg no doubt would have explained the idea in different terms),
and he was using molecular levels of amphetamine or Dexedrine (in the
body) as an example and perhaps not as a cause.

---

Request for Question Clarification by knowledge_seeker-ga on 21 Sep 2004 06:55 PDT

Thanks for the clarification ishmon. Unfortunately that leaves me at a
loss. I'll leave this question open to the other researchers and will
post my research results below in comment to save others from
repeating the prelim work I've already done.

Sorry I couldn't help you out. 

-K~

---

Clarification of Question by ishimon-ga on 21 Sep 2004 07:15 PDT

Hello again knowledge_seeker-ga,

Where you found:

?An approximate daily psychoactive dose of amyl nitrite is 1 ml (or
0.01 mol) (55, 56). This represents about 6 x 1021 molecules and
corresponds to 6 x 107 molecules for every one of the 1014 cells of
the human body, enough for abundant toxicity. The daily prescription
of 500-1500 mg AZT also corresponds to 2-6 x 1021 molecules or 2-6 x
107 for every cell in the human body, more than enough to kill every
cell that takes it up (4)?

I think you came close enough to what I was looking for -- it wasn't
the number of mitochondria but the number of CELLS in the body
compared to the number of molecules of drug -- a surprisingly large
number of drug molecules per cell per dose.  Whether it is amyl
nitrate or AZT I would presume the same ratios apply to amphetamines
or any other pharmaceutical substance.

This is basically what I was looking for and therefore close enough to
my original inquiry to be satisfying, and so as far as I am concerned
you can have the $5.  I am not sure just how you would appropriate
that, but good luck and...

Many thanks.  I really do appreciate you effort on my behalf where
perhaps I overlooked the obvious.

Well thank you very much ishimon!

Rather than repeat my comments in the Answer space, I'll just use this
space to say that I enjoyed the research and learned quite a bit new
myself. That Peter Deusberg is quite the tenacious character isn't he?

Thanks for the great question and for accepting my comments as your answer. 

-K~

With a little feedback and a prompt for clarification you found what I
needed and saved me who knows how much time searching up blind alleys.
 It was fun, too.  Many thanks.

Info for other researchers  ------------


Searched:   http://www.duesberg.com
Terms:    site:www.duesberg.com  
[molecule] [cells] [amphetamine] [Dexedrine] [mitochondria] 

Brief search of Pubmed for  [Duesberg HIV ]  yields 54 results.
Addition of terms Dexedrine or amphetamine yielded no results.

Pubmed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed


============

RESULTS FROM www.duesberg.com  

Can Epidemiology Determine Whether Drugs or HIV Cause AIDS?
By Peter H. Duesberg 
AIDS-Forschung (AIFO), 12, pp. 627-635, December 1993 


?An approximate daily psychoactive dose of amyl nitrite is 1 ml (or
0.01 mol) (55, 56). This represents about 6 x 1021 molecules and
corresponds to 6 x 107 molecules for every one of the 1014 cells of
the human body, enough for abundant toxicity. The daily prescription
of 500-1500 mg AZT also corresponds to 2-6 x 1021 molecules or 2-6 x
107 for every cell in the human body, more than enough to kill every
cell that takes it up (4)?

Can Epidemiology Determine Whether Drugs or HIV Cause AIDS?
http://www.duesberg.com/papers/ch8.html


=====================

Latent Viruses and Mutated Oncogenes: No Evidence for Pathogenicity 
Peter H. Duesberg and Jody R. Schwartz 
Progress in Nucleic Acid Research and Molecular Biology 43:135-204, 1992 

?The nitrites are directly toxic as oxidants of biological molecules
such as hemoglobin, and are effective mutagens (101, 103). The
National Institute on Drug Abuse reports correlations from 69% (116)
to virtually 100% (101, 113) between nitrite inhalants and Kaposi
sarcoma and pneumonia, which are diagnosed as AIDS in the presence of
antibody to HIV?

Latent Viruses and Mutated Oncogenes: No Evidence for Pathogenicity
http://www.duesberg.com/papers/ch5.html



==============

How Much Longer Can We Afford the AIDS Virus Monopoly?
By Peter H. Duesberg 

To be published in the Genetica monograph, "AIDS: Virus- or Drug-Induced?" (1995) 


"Cytotoxic and genotoxic. Nitrite inhalants are cytotoxic, and thus
are immunotoxic in animals and humans #(Goedert et al., 1982; Haverkos
and Dougherty, 1988)#. A recreational dose of 1 ml per day #(Haverkos
and Dougherty, 1988; Duesberg, 1992)# corresponds to about 15 ppm in a
75 kg-person, and corresponds to 107 nitrite molecules for everyone of
the 1014 cells in the human body. The cytotoxicity of nitrites on the
epithelial tissues of the lung are enhanced by the toxins of cigarette
smoke, which also suppresses the immunesystem #(Nieman et al., 1993)."

How Much Longer Can We Afford the AIDS Virus Monopoly?
http://www.duesberg.com/papers/ch13.html

=================


Good luck ..

-K~