doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00218 Growth potentials of CCR5-tropic/CXCR4-tropic HIV-1mt clones in macaque cells

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is strictly adapted to humans, and cause AIDS only in humans. Consequently, no experimental animals susceptible to HIV-1 and suitable for the AIDS model study are available to date (Nomaguchi et al., 2008, 2011). To overcome this issue, viruses genetically related to HIV-1 have been challenged into macaquemonkeys to mimic the natu-ral HIV-1 infection. Viruses used for these experiments are simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs), SIVs chimeric with parts of HIV-1 sequences (SHIVs), and macaque tropic HIV-1 derivatives carrying a small portion of SIV genome (HIV-1mt clones). Because viruses of the SHIV and HIV-1mt groups carry HIV-1 genes/sequences, their scientific/medical significance and impact are evident. Although some SHIVs indeed induce AIDS in macaques, accu-mulating evidences have demonstrated that the genuine CCR5-tropism of input viruses is prerequisite for superimpos-ing the experimental outcome on the natural disease progression in human