Selective compartmental dominance: an explanation for a 
noninfectious, multifactorial etiology for acquired immune 
deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and a rationale for ozone therapy and 
other immune modulating therapies. 

Shallenberger F 

Med Hypotheses, 1998 Jan, 50:1, 67-80 


Abstract 

The most widely accepted etiological explanation for acquired 
immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) currently invokes an infectious 
model involving the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Because 
this infectious model has failed to meet any conventional criteria 
for establishing microbial causation, this theory still relies on 
the high, though not perfect, statistical correlation linking 
presence of HIV antibodies with patients diagnosed with, and at 
risk for the syndrome. Many scientists and clinicians now doubt 
the HIV theory, though, and propose instead a multifactorial 
causation similar to that seen in cancer and heart disease. In 
order to discard the HIV model, however, it is necessary to 
explain the high statistical correlation mentioned above. Recent 
studies involving cellular mediated immunity and cytokine 
modulation may explain this statistical relationship without the 
need to invoke infectious causation, by suggesting certain 
functional characteristics and feedback loops in the immune system 
which the author calls selective compartmental dominance (SCD). 
SCD provides a model in which chronic dominance of the humoral 
immune compartment secondary to chronic high-dose antigenic 
challenge results in chronic suppression of the cellular immune 
compartment. This model predicts that even HIV-negative members of 
the risk groups are susceptible to AIDS, assigns no special causal 
role for HIV in AIDS, and suggests a rational course of nontoxic 
therapy that can potentially reverse cases in the earlier stages.