Abstract

Three years after the identification of HIV-1 as the causative agent of an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans in 1983, another member of the Lentiviridae family was discovered in a cattery in Petaluma, California. Originally named feline T-lymphotropic lentivirus, the virus was finally named feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). Within the Lentiviridae family, FIV is placed between the primate lentiviruses HIV and SIV on the one hand and the ungulate viruses Visna virus, CAEV, EIAV and BIV on the other hand, on the basis of genome structure and organisation (Figures 1A and 2). Although FIV is phylogenetically more distant from HIV-1 than the primate lentiviruses it shares many structural and biochemical characteristics with HIV and given the close resemblance of the pathogeneses of infections with both viruses in their respective hosts, FIV infection of the domestic cat (Felis catus) has established itself, in the two decades that have past since its identification, as an excellent small animal model for lentiviral infections in general and lentivirus vaccine development in particular.

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A.D.M.E. Osterhaus (Albert)
Erasmus University Rotterdam
hdl.handle.net/1765/77015
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Huisman, W. (2008, December 18). FIV vaccine development: a continuing challenge. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/77015