SIVsmm infection of macaque and mangabey monkeys: correlation between in vivo and in vitro properties of different isolates.

Simian immunodeficiency virus from sooty mangabey monkeys (SIVsmm), a lentivirus closely related to SIV from macaques and the human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2), is pathogenic for various species of macaques but is nonpathogenic for mangabeys. Comparison of in vivo and in vitro responses of macaques and mangabeys or their lymphocytes, respectively, to SIVsmm infection indicated that lack of disease in mangabeys apparently was not due to effective control of virus expression by the immune system because SIVsmm-infected, asymptomatic mangabeys have high viral loads. Failure of mangabeys to develop disease may be related to the fact that the prototype SIVsmm (SMM-9) replicated in, but was not cytopathic for, mangabey CD4+ cells. In contrast, replication of SMM-9 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from pigtailed macaques resulted in specific loss of CD4+ cells and induction of an AIDS-like disease. A variant of SMM-9, designated SMM-PBj14, was identified, however, that was extremely cytopathic for mangabey CD4+ cells and also induced acute lethal disease in both macaques and mangabeys. Acute disease was associated with extensive lymphoid hyperplasia, which was correlated in vitro with induction of proliferation of PBMC in SMM-PBj14-infected cultures. Infectious molecular clones of SMM-PBj14 exhibited the same in vitro and in vivo properties as SMM-PBj14. Future analysis of chimeric viruses may lead to the identification of specific regions of the viral genome that influence the various in vivo and in vitro properties of these SIVsmm isolates.