Objective: HIV-1 and HIV-2 isolates representing various geographic regions and distinct viral subtypes were examined for their ability to establish both in vitro and in vivo productive infections of Macaca nemestrina (pigtail macaque) peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
Methods: Animals were inoculated with either autologous cell-associated or cell-free viral preparations of selected isolates. HIV-specific immune responsiveness, hematologic changes, genetic variation, and virus burden were monitored as delineators of HIV pathogenesis.
Results: HIV-2 replication in vitro and in vivo correlated with nascent antigen production and rising viral titers as determined by infectious center assays. Infection was detectable by polymerase chain reaction amplification of proviral sequences in macaque cells as early as 1 week postinoculation. Two distinct patterns of CD4+ cell depletion induced by HIV-2 infection were observed during the first month postinoculation and characterized by a moderate loss sustained through 20 weeks postinoculation or a substantial loss maintained long-term (> 90 weeks). Identity between inoculating viral stocks and subsequent viral isolates from animals was established comparatively by limited sequence analysis of specific domains within the HIV-2 pol and env genes. In contrast, replication of HIV-1 isolates was limited or only semipermissive in vitro. Intravenous inoculation of HIV-1 field isolates, using conditions successful for HIV-2 (for example, identical viral titers), failed to establish a productive viral infection leading to seroconversion of fluctuations in hematologic cell markers. Infection with a high-titer inoculum of a laboratory-adapted HIV-1 strain in vivo, as demonstrated by polymerase chain reaction analysis, produced seroconversion in the absence of overt viral replication or hematologic variations in one out of four animals.
Conclusions: This system provides for multifaceted modeling of HIV pathogenesis, primarily with HIV-2 and potentially with HIV-1/-2 chimerics, in support of immunotherapeutic developments and critical evaluation of intervention practices.