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Auto-Antibodies in HIV/AIDS Patients

    Immune complexes, rheumatoid factor, anti-cardiolipin, anti-nuclear factor, anti-cellular, anti-platelet, anti-red cell, anti-actin, anti-DNA, anti-tubulin, anti-thyroglobulin, anti-albumin, anti-myosin, anti-trinitrophenyl anti-thymosin, anti-lactoferrin, anti-TNF-a, anti-beta-2 glycoprotein I, anti-prothrombin, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic, anti-ssDNA, anti-RNA, anti-histones, anti-nuclear antigen SS-A, anti-mitochondrial,anti-reticulin, anti-smooth muscle, anti-gut epithelial cell, anti-lymphocytic ganglioside, anti-Fab, anti-protein S, anti-brain proteins, anti-synthetic peptides of ubiquitinated histone H2A, anit-Sm-D antigen, anti-U1-A RNP antigen, anti-60 kD SSA/Ro antigen, anti-histone H1 and anti-histone H2B antibodies.
    Anti-lymphocyte auto-antibodies in 87% of seropositives.

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    Slide 14 of 24

One possibility, for which there is abundant evidence, is that the antibodies are antibodies directed against cellular proteins. In other words, autoantibodies. This is a list of a few of the autoantibodies that have been found in the sera of AIDS patients. There’s obviously a considerable number but a MEDLINE search will reveal many more. And the list keeps growing.

But there are also other reasons which have nothing to do with retroviruses to account for a positive Western blot.