Replication potentials of HIV-1/HSIV in PBMCs from northern pig-tailed macaque (Macaca leonina)

Dongwuxue Yanjiu. 2014 May;35(3):186-95. doi: 10.11813/j.issn.0254-5853.2014.3.186.

Abstract

The northern pig-tailed macaque (Macaca leonina) has been identified as an independent species of Old World monkey, and we previously found that PBMCs from M. leonina were susceptible to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), which may be due to the absence of a TRIM5 protein restricting HIV-1 replication. Here we investigated the infection potentials of six laboratory adapted HIV-1 strains and three primary HIV-1 isolates in PBMCs from M. leonina. The results indicate that these strains are characterized by various but low replication levels, and among which, HIV-1NL4-3 shows the highest replication ability. Based on the abundant evidence of species-specific interactions between restriction factors APOBEC3 and HIV/SIV-derived Vif protein, we subsequently examined the replication potentials of vif-substituted HIV-1 (HSIV) in M. leonina PBMCs. Notably, HSIV-vifmac and stHIV-1SV chimeras, two HIV-1NL4-3-derived viruses encoding the viral infectivity factor (Vif) protein from SIVmac239, replicated robustly in cells from M. leonina, which suggests that HSIV could effectively antagonize the antiviral activity of APOBEC3 proteins expressed in cells of M. leonina. Therefore, our data demonstrate that M. leonina has the potential to be developed into a promising animal model for human AIDS.

Keywords: HIV-1; HSIV; Northern pig-tailed macaque (Macaca leonina); PBMC; Replication.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Genetic Variation
  • HIV-1 / genetics
  • HIV-1 / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Leukocytes, Mononuclear / virology*
  • Macaca*
  • Mutation
  • Reassortant Viruses
  • Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / genetics*
  • Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / physiology
  • Virus Replication / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program (2012CBA01305); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81172876, U0832601, 81273251 and U1202228); the Knowledge Innovation Program of CAS (KSCX2-EW-R-13, Y206A- 71181), and the Key Scientific and Technological Program of China (2012ZX10001-007, 2013ZX10001-002)