The pathogenesis of AIDS: lessons from the SIV-Macaque model

In the mid-eighties it became apparent that a human retrovirus of the lentivirus subfamily, later designated human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-l), was the etiological agent of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This disease was characterised by unusual opportunistic infections, neurologic abnormalities, gastrointestinal disorders and malignancies due to an insidious decay of the immune system. The urgent need to gain insight in certain aspects of the pathobiology of this infection demanded relevant animal models. As a consequence of this need the search for similar lentivimses present in other animal species intensified. Several lentivimses have been identified to induce AIDS-like disease in a vruiety of animals , however, only simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and feline inununodeficiency virus (FIV), wWcb cause AIDS-like symptoms in macaques and cats, respectively, have been commonly used as animal models. In this chapter an overview of the molecular biology of SIV and the utilisation of the SIV -macaque model for AIDS research is given. In prulicular, the use of molecular clones of SIV to elucidate the pathogenesis of AIDS is described.