HIV-1-induced AIDS in monkeys

Adapting HIV-1 to infect monkeys, too HIV-1 replicates well in humans but not in monkeys or mice. On the up side, this reduces the risk of cross-species transmissions, but it makes the study of HIV-1 and AIDS more difficult. Hatziioannou et al. overcame this hurdle by serially passaging HIV-1 in pigtailed macaques. Over time, the HIV-1 acquired mutations that allowed it to adapt to the monkeys. Depleting CD8 + T cells during acute infection resulted in a subset of animals developing an AIDS-like disease by the fourth passage. HIV-1 envelope protein gene selection and the acquisition of mutations in the HIV protein Vpu, which allowed HIV-1 to overcome host restriction by the macaque protein tetherin, accompanied the viral adaptation to the monkeys. Science , this issue p. 1401