22 Jul The Emergence of New HIV Strains That May Infect Humans Never Ends
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Zhe Yuan
Zhe Yuan MS. MS. PhD Candidate
Nebraska Center for Virology
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: AIDS causes millions of infections and deaths each year. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the cause of this detrimental disease of humans. Just like Ebola and Zika, AIDS is also a zoonotic disease at the beginning. For the origins of HIV, people believed that HIV originated from simian immunodeficiency virus from wild chimpanzees (SIVcpz). But until now, there has been no direct in vivo evidence for this assumption. Further, people cannot explain why only certain SIVcpz strains are thought to be the ancestors of already discovered HIV strains in humans. There is also a need to clarify what transmission risks might exist for those SIVcpz strains that have not already been found to infect humans. The answers to these questions are essential for a better understanding of cross-species transmission and predicting the likelihood of additional cross-species transmission events of SIV into humans.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: To close these knowledge gaps, we used the humanized-BLT mice and challenged them with multiple SIV strains. We found humanized-BLT mice are susceptible to all studied strains of SIVcpz, including the inferred ancestral viruses of pandemic and non-pandemic HIV-1 groups M (SIVcpzMB897) and N (SIVcpzEK505), also strains that have not been found in humans (SIVcpzMT145 and SIVcpzBF1167). We have provided in vivo experimental evidence of multiple SIVcpz strains crossing over to humans and identified several important mutations of divergent SIVcpz strains after long-term replication in human cells. We also found the cross-species transmission barrier of SIVcpz to humans correlates with their phylogenetic distance to pandemic HIV-1 group M. Importantly, our work provides evidence that SIVcpz viruses, whose inferred descendants have not been found in humans, still have the potential to cause a future HIV-1 like zoonotic outbreak.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: Actually, the emergence of new HIV never ends. In 2009, new HIV-1 group P was reported. Similar to the Zika virus that remained relatively quiet for a long period after its initial discovery around 70 years ago, many SIV viruses that are able to infect humans as indicated in our study, may one day be the source of new HIV groups Q, R, S… or other zoonotic outbreaks that could damage public health.
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Citation:
Recapitulating Cross-Species Transmission of SIVcpz to Humans Using Humanized-BLT Mice
Zhe Yuan, Guobin Kang, Fangrui Ma, Wuxun Lu, Wenjin Fan,Christine M. Fennessey, Brandon F. Keele, and Qingsheng Li
J. Virol. JVI.00860-16; Accepted manuscript posted online 15 June 2016,doi:10.1128/JVI.00860-16
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Last Updated on July 22, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD