Previously, Asian macaques, a type of monkey, were the only nonhuman primates known to regularly develop full-blown AIDS when infected with SIV. The work, reported in the July 23 Nature, could help researchers understand the pathogenicity and species-to-species transmission of immunodeficiency viruses that, up until now, have appeared to pose serious health hazards primarily to humans. In one instance, a female died with all the hallmarks of end-stage AIDS. Adapted from Heeney et al./Science 2006Ī long-term study of a wild population has found that chimpanzees naturally infected with simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, die early and their babies die within a year of birth. Group O resembles the SIV recently found to infect gorillas, who may have been an intermediate host. It also may have jumped to humans at least three different times, giving rise to HIV-1 groups M, N and O. This chimp version may have jumped to another chimp subspecies and gorillas. Adapted from Weiss and Heeney/NatureīACK STORY: UNTANGLING SIV AND HIV-1 The version of SIV found in the affected chimpanzees appears to have evolved from a mix of SIV from red-capped mangabeys and greater spot-nosed monkeys and their relatives, maybe via an intermediate host. Previous work suggests the SIV version in the western chimps is a mix of versions from red-capped mangabeys and greater spot-nosed monkeys and relatives. The eastern chimps in a new study may have acquired SIV from their western relatives. SIV’S REACH | One two of the four subspecies of chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes and Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, are known to harbor SIV. A post-mortem exam conducted after she died from spinal cord injury complications revealed lower than normal counts of disease-fighting white blood cells. WilsonĪ SICK MOM Chimp 099, shown with her daughter, tested positive for SIVcpz in 2003. He went missing in 2007 and is presumed dead. PATIENT ZERO? When sampling began in 2000, Chimp 006 was the first chimpanzee in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park chimp population to test positive for SIV infection. ![]() A primate version of the virus that causes AIDS was long thought to be harmless in its African hosts, but chimpanzees have not been spared after all.
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