6th International AIDS Conference


San Francisco, California, USA — June 20-23, 1990

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Comparative neuropathology of human (HIV) and simian (SIV) immunodeficiency virus infections in man and macaque monkeys.

Int Conf AIDS 1990 Jun 20-23; 6:340 (abstract no. 1104)
Ribas JL, Kanzer MD, McClure HM, Anderson DW; The Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Bethesda, MD, USA

OBJECTIVE: To compare type and general distribution of lesions in human and macaque monkey central nervous system (CNS) infected with HIV and SIV, respectively. MATERIALS AND

METHODS: CNS tissues from experimental macaque monkeys, which were chronically infected with SIV/SMM or acutely infected with a lethal variant SIV/SMMPBj14, were compared with autopsy CNS tissues from pediatric and adult patients dying with AIDS.

RESULTS: A subacute meningoencephalomyelitis, characterized by randomly distributed perivascular collections of macrophages, glial cells and multinucleated giant (syncytial) cells, was present in both HIV- and SIV-infected CNS. Leptomeningeal lesions predominated in early stages of SIV-CNS infection, but with progression of disease the lesions were mainly parenchymal. In HIV-CNS infection lesions were primarily parenchymal and were localized in subcortical white and gray matter. Many concurrent opportunistic infections occurred in adult HIV-CNS, but cytomegalovirus reactivation was the main opportunistic infection present in pediatric HIV-CNS and SIV-CNS. Opportunistic neoplasms occurred in 5% of HIV-CNS and none were seen in SIV-CNS. Vacuolar myelopathy was present in adult HIV-spinal cord only. Gross cerebrocortical atrophy occurred in 30% of HIV-infected brains, but it was not observed in SIV brains. Vascular and parenchymal calcification was seen in pediatric HIV-CNS, only.

CONCLUSION: Infection with SIV more closely resembled pediatric than adult HIV meningoencephalitis. Because of the differences in HIV and SIV neuropathological expression, SIV strains that approximate more closely clinical and pathological chronic CNS disease in humans need to be developed.

Keywords: AEGIS, SIV, HIV, Macaca, Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Hominidae, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Neurosciences, Central Nervous System, Brain, Meningoencephalitis, Neuroglia, Opportunistic Infections, Brain Diseases, HIV Envelope Protein gp41, Human, Male, Animal, Adult, Child, ICA6

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Copyright © 1990 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.