WRITTEN TESTIMONY OF LUC MONTAGNIER, M.D. FEBRUARY 2, 2000

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM

SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY, VETERANS' AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL

RELATIONS http://www.house.gov/reform/ns/hearings/subfolder/urnovitztest.htm

Mr. Chairman, my name is Dr. Luc Montagnier. I received a medical degree

from Paris University in 1960. My CV is submitted along with my written

testimony. I currently hold the position of Distinguished Professor at both

Queens College in New York and at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. I also

serve on the Scientific Advisory board of publicly traded company along with

Howard B. Urnovitz, PhD, who was invited to testify before this committee

today.

I have been involved in the study of the biological properties of RNA for

nearly four decades. I first published the observation of the existence of

double stranded RNA in replicating viruses in 1963 and within cells in 1968.

I also led the team that discovered the RNA viruses: HIV-1, HIV-2 and

HIV-1 group O.

I have been following the interesting work of Urnovitz and his colleagues.

They have reported on the detection of RNA molecules in the blood of veterans

with Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) which seems to be specific for the disease. I

am aware of their ability to detect similar blood RNA molecules in several

other chronic diseases. We should remember that the role of RNA in the

process of life was first recognized just 37 years ago. Since 1963, RNA has

been shown to be self-replicated, spliced, edited, reverse-transcribed and to

be endowed with enzymatic activity. This new observation suggests that RNA

may also be involved in the process of disease. It is my opinion that the

detection and identification of blood-borne RNA is an important contribution

to the field of medicine that will result in our further understanding of the

nature of chronic disease and chronic disease progression.

I have reviewed Dr, Urnovitz’s published research and the testimony prepared

for presentation to this Committee and strongly advise that future research

on Gulf War Syndrome should include the study of the detected genetic

material, i.e., novel RNA in the sera of these veterans. I have agreed to

provide my advice, drawing upon my experience and research into RNA to assist

this research team in this matter. I foresee that the study of GWS may have

major consequences for other chronic diseases.

TESTIMONY OF HOWARD B. URNOVITZ, PH.D.

FEBRUARY 2, 2000

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM

SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY, VETERANS' AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL

RELATIONS

I am grateful to the Committee for allowing me the opportunity to review the

GAO report on "Gulf War Illnesses: Management Actions Needed to Answer Basic

Research Questions" and for inviting me to present my views and

recommendations on research directions for Persian Gulf War Related Illnesses

or GWS, Gulf War Syndrome. My name is Dr. Howard B. Urnovitz. I received my

doctorate degree in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of

Michigan in 1979. My entire CV is submitted with my written testimony. I

currently hold the position of Scientific Director of the Chronic Illness

Research Foundation as well as my current position as Chief Science Officer

and Director of a publicly traded biomedical company.

With respect to my views on government research programs concerning GWS, I

concur with the GAO report that many of the research objectives identified by

the Research Working Group of the Persian Gulf Veterans’ Coordinating Board

have not been reached. Some of the government-funded epidemiological studies,

particularly those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the

University of Texas Southwestern have been very meaningful. Most of the

government-funded research conducted thus far, however, has focused on trying

to quantify exposures with little or no data, identifying single exposure

agents as the sole causative factor, or summarizing the research of others.

The identification of the range of toxic exposures would assist greatly in

determining the array of causative factors associated with GWS. Today, we

already have a great deal information on the potential exposures during the

Gulf War. Unfortunately, since a significant amount of the data was not

collected, we will never know with any degree of certainty what the extent

and combination of the exposures were in the case of each individual patient.

Further, identification of these exposures alone will not reveal the disease

mechanisms involved the progression of these illnesses.

Identifying the disease mechanism has been the focus of our research. I

recommend that Congress strongly encourage the Department of Defense, the

Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Department of Health and Human

Services to fully acknowledge non-government funded, published, peer-reviewed

independent research to further expand the total information base on GWS. I

am concerned that we in the independent research community do not have a

structure for free dialog with government agencies and researchers. To

exclude these contributions to science is not productive.

The GAO report recognizes medical science's conventional approach to chronic

illnesses. The paradigm continues to be a search for a single causative

agent. The weakness in this conceptual approach is that most chronic

diseases are multifactorial. This single causative agent approach was

formulated long before science recognized that the human body can sustain

damage at the cellular and molecular level from a variety of physical,

chemical, or biological insults, and long before we determine the vast arrays

of hazardous materials to which these veterans were exposed. Assigning any

one entity as the causative agent will impede any progress in designing

medical control of a chronic disorder.

I thank the Subcommittee for recognizing the contributions my colleagues and

I have made to the GWS medical literature. It is my hope that our unique

approach to understanding Gulf War Illnesses may serve as a platform for

research into other chronic ailments. My colleagues and I approach GWS like

most other chronic illnesses by asking the following question: what is common

among people who suffer from chronic illnesses? For brevity, I will

summarize our research findings published in 6 peer-reviewed papers in 1999

on four different diseases. One of these papers is attached to my written

testimony.

It would appear that the human body has a mechanism for confronting toxic

exposures. We all know that we are given our physical characteristics from

genetic material or genes; one set of genes received from each parent. What

we learned by simultaneously studying GWS, cancer, AIDS and multiple

sclerosis is that the genes have the ability to "reshuffle" and create new

genes. We reason that these new genes are used to adapt to the toxic

environment in which we live. It seems that there are confounding events

that turns this reshuffling mechanism from a normal protective process to a

disease state. One of the next phases in our research plan is to determine

what events trigger these reshuffled genes to convert from helpful to harmful.

Through a research blood test we recently developed, we have been able to

identify material in the sera of patients suffering from chronic illnesses

that likely play a critical role both as a marker of the illnesses and a

mechanism for the reshuffling. This discovery of the reshuffling process

resulted from the identification and analyses of a type of nucleic acid, RNA,

found in the serum or plasma of GWS veterans. It took us several years to

break the code on just one RNA molecule that we were able to isolate. It has

been our goal to collect RNA from as many veterans with GWS and clone, decode

and catalog the reshuffled genes with respect to patient symptomology. This

approach should allow us to group ailments according to the pattern of each

gene sequence. The modern marvel of mapping the normal human genome is close

to completion. We plan to initiate our own program mapping the detours that

the human genome takes with respect to toxic exposure and chronic disease.

The ensuing catalog of reshuffled genes should assist in establishing

diagnostic protocols and tailoring treatments for each patient.

The single greatest obstacle to achieving this goal with respect to the

veterans has been the lack of sufficient private sector funding for research

into an issue that most people believe is the responsibility of the

government.

I include supporting testimony from my colleague, Prof. Luc Montagnier.

Prof. Montagnier's laboratories, with 4 decades experience with evaluating

the biological and medical significance of RNA, led the research effort into

the discovery of the AIDS associated viruses: HIV-1, HIV-2 and HIV-1 group

O. We jointly concur that to understand the origin of the disease associated

RNAs in GWS, a major effort be launched on understanding a family of genes

referred to as retroelements. Retroelements make up over 6% of the genes in

the human body and appear to be central to the origin of disease associated

RNA.

I would like to state for the record that it is my professional opinion that

the clues to solving significant medical problems in the world today:

cancers, AIDS, heart and liver diseases, autoimmune and neurologic disorders,

vaccine safety, chemical injuries, and military associated ailments, —lie in

the blood of these veterans who suffer from GWS and possibly in the blood of

their families. Once we break and catalog the code of the reshuffled RNA, we

may finally have a clear direction in how to treat chronic illnesses. The

Gulf War veterans will become heroes again for a second time.

I ask that the full text of my statement along with a prepared statement from

my colleague Professor Montagnier be submitted for inclusion in the record of

the hearing.