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Journal of Virology, July 1999, p. 5814-5825, Vol. 73, No. 7
Received 11 January 1999/Accepted 26 March 1999
A nef gene is present in all primate lentiviruses,
including human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and simian
immunodeficiency virus of macaque monkeys (SIVmac). However, the
nef genes of HIV-1 and SIVmac exhibit minimal sequence
identity, and not all properties are shared by the two. Nef sequences
of SIVmac239 were replaced by four independent
nef alleles of HIV-1 in a context that was optimal for
expression. The sources of the HIV-1 nef sequences included
NL 4-3, a variant NL 4-3 gene derived from a recombinant-infected rhesus monkey, a patient nef allele, and a nef
consensus sequence. Of 16 rhesus monkeys infected with these SHIVnef
chimeras, 9 maintained high viral loads for prolonged periods, as
observed with the parental SIVmac239, and 6 have died with
AIDS 52 to 110 weeks postinfection. Persistent high loads were observed
at similar frequencies with the four different SIV
recombinants that expressed these independent HIV-1 nef
alleles. Infection with other recombinant SHIVnef constructions resulted in sequence changes in infected monkeys that either created an
open nef reading frame or optimized the HIV-1
nef translational context. The HIV-1 nef gene
was uniformly retained in all SHIVnef-infected monkeys. These results
demonstrate that HIV-1 nef can substitute for
SIVmac nef in vivo to produce a pathogenic
infection. However, the model suffers from an inability to consistently
obtain persisting high viral loads in 100% of the infected animals, as
is observed with the parental SIVmac239.
0022-538X/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Induction of AIDS in Rhesus Monkeys by a Recombinant Simian
Immunodeficiency Virus Expressing nef of Human
Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: New England
Regional Primate Research Center, Harvard Medical School, One Pine Hill Dr., Box 9102, Southborough, MA 01772-9102. Phone: (508) 624-8042. Fax:
(508) 624-8190. E-mail:
ronald_desrosiers{at}hms.harvard.edu.
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