Two studies were published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation explaining a significant understanding of reasons why some monkey species including the Sooty Mangabeys and African Green Monkeys avoid being infected with AIDS when they were injected with SIV, the simian equivalent of HIV.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, and the University of Toronto examined Sooty Mangabey, while the Pasteur Institute in France studied African Green Monkeys to identify possible genes related to disease progression and resistance. "Sooty Mangabey's are capable to shut down the immune response after they were injected with SIV and remained healthy. Sooty Mangabeys respond to the SIV in a similar manner to Rhesus Macaques (another monkey species) , which get sick, and like humans that are infected with HIV, but Sooty Mangabeys do not get sick." According to Dr. Steven Bosinger.
The Pennsylvania study compared the changes that were induced by the SIV infection on the gene profiles of two different monkey spieces. The Rhesus Macaques undergo an AIDS like disease when they were infected with the SIV. The Soot Mangabey remain AIDS- free when they are infected with SIV. The Sooty Mangabey are natives to Western Africa and are known to become infected with SIV from the wild.
This study has changed the way AIDS researchers look at the human versus simian AIDS infections. With the Sooty Mangabeys having a high antiviral immune system and interferon genes and the production of type one interferon's. The injected SIV includes a large activation of immune molecules in both Sooty Mangabeys and African Green monkeys, but only the Sooty Mangabeys are capable of bringing the response under control, keeping them from producing the AIDS disease. These genes that the Mangabeys carry are keeping them disease resistant. This knowledge will open up many different varieties of AIDS therapy for humans.
This study may be the gateway to helping reduce AIDS. Researchers are already aware that some Humans have a gene mutation that keep them AIDS resistant they cannot produce the CCR5 protein that HIV attach and infects. I find these studies very important to the research and am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for AIDS research.
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