A brief history of the discovery of natural simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infections in captive sooty mangabey monkeys

• Published in: Frontiers in bioscience Vol. 9; no. 1-3; pp. 216 - 224
• Main Authors: Gormus, Bobby J, Martin, Louis N, Baskin, Gary B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-01-2004
• Subjects: Animals; Cercocebus atys; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Human immunodeficiency virus; Leprosy - complications; Leprosy - microbiology; Lymphoma - complications; Macaca; Mycobacterium leprae - isolation & purification; Primates; Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - complications; Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - history; Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - microbiology; Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - transmission; Simian immunodeficiency virus; Simian Immunodeficiency Virus - isolation & purification
• ISSN: 1093-9946; 1093-4715
• DOI: 10.2741/1151

Experimental leprosy studies using Mycobacterium leprae inoculum isolated from a sooty mangabey monkey (SMM) resulted in the accidental discovery that SMM's asymptomatically carry simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that is pathogenic in macaques. We showed that the SMM virus, SIVDelta, was antigenically related to SIVmac, which had been identified in macaques, and to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Similar asymptomatic natural SIV infections had been reported in African green monkeys (AGM). Our results together with observations of others led us to propose that both SIVmac and SIVDelta originated in SMM and that SIV emerged in humans as a result of early African nonhuman primate SIV trans-species infections in humans.