Infection of Macaca nemestrina brain with human immunodeficiency virus type 1

• Published in: Journal of general virology 1995-10, Vol.76 (10), p.2467-2476
• Main Authors: Frumkin, Lyn R, Patterson, Bruce K, Leverenz, James B, Agy, Michael B, Wolinsky, Steven M, Morton, William R, Corey, Lawrence
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: AIDS Dementia Complex - pathology; AIDS Dementia Complex - virology; AIDS/HIV; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Base Sequence; Brain - pathology; Brain - virology; Cells, Cultured; Consensus Sequence; Disease Models, Animal; DNA, Circular - analysis; DNA, Viral - analysis; HIV Envelope Protein gp120 - chemistry; HIV-1 - isolation & purification; HIV-1 - pathogenicity; human immunodeficiency virus 1; Humans; In Situ Hybridization - methods; Macaca nemestrina; Macaca nemestrina - virology; Molecular Sequence Data; Monocytes - virology; Peptide Fragments - chemistry; Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods; RNA, Messenger - analysis; RNA, Viral - analysis
• ISSN: 0022-1317; 1465-2099
• DOI: 10.1099/0022-1317-76-10-2467

1 Department of Medicine 2 Department of Microbiology 3 Department of Laboratory Medicine and 4 Department of Regional Primate Research Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195 and 5 Department of Medicine, Northwestern University School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA We previously reported that pigtailed macaques ( Macaca nemestrina ) became infected after intravenous inoculation with the LAI strain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), an isolate that replicates in both M. nemestrina lymphocytes and blood-derived monocyte/macrophages. In the current study we investigated the presence of HIV-1 and pathology in the postmortem brains of four of these macaques. Histopathological findings revealed focal lesions in white matter in the frontal and occipital lobes of one macaque, with myelin loss, nerve fibre loss, and gliosis within these lesions. Semi-quantitative, solution-based PCR revealed HIV-1 DNA in the brains of two of the other macaques. Using slide-based PCR-driven in situ hybridization, we studied these two macaques further and detected intranuclear, circular HIV-1 DNA in vascular endothelia and other non-neuronal brain cells. These findings indicate that M. nemestrina brain can be infected with HIV-1 in vivo and may provide a useful animal model for understanding early HIV-1 brain infection in humans. * Author for correspondence. Fax [phone]. e-mail [e-mail] Received 28 March 1995; accepted 7 June 1995.