Important note: Information in this article was accurate in February 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, February 15, 1999
Daniel J. DeNoon, Senior Editor
This harrowing suggestion comes from French researchers F. Simon and colleagues, who have discovered four new strains of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) among three species of monkeys in Cameroon. It comes on the heels of the confirmation by U.S. researchers that HIV type 1 (HIV-1) has on several occasions jumped the species barrier from chimpanzees to humans.
Humans almost certainly acquired both HIV-1 and HIV-2 infection while butchering monkeys for meat. Although the predominant strain of HIV-1 crossed into humans prior to the 1940s, Simon et al. noted that the hunting and trapping of primates is far more widespread than ever before.
"In recent years logging has increased the accessibility to remote areas and contributed to an increase in the bushmeat trade," Simon et al. concluded in their poster presentation to the 6th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held January 31-February 4, 1999, in Chicago, Illinois.
"Such contact may increase the likelihood that an HIV-3 will enter the human population, or has already done so, analogous to the until recently unknown HIV-1 group N strains."
The French researchers noted that HIV-1 more closely resembles the type of SIV endemic in chimpanzees (SIV[CPZ]) than it does HIV-2. HIV-2 more closely resembles the type of SIV endemic in sooty mangabey monkeys (SIV[SM]) than it does HIV-1 or SIV[CPZ]. This indicates that HIV has entered human populations from two different types of monkeys; genetic analyses show that these transmissions occurred on multiple occasions.
"These simian lentiviruses are just two members of a divergent viral radiation," Simon et al. wrote in their presentation abstract. "Thus, it is important we understand the real primate lentivirus diversity."
To this end, they sequenced viruses isolated from a number of primate species. Their studies led to the identification of four new SIVs. These came from three types of monkey, all found in Cameroon: the red-capped mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus torquatus), the mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) and the drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus).
They named the two new strains from the red-capped mangabey SIV[RCM605] and SIV[RCM2420], that from the mandrill SIV[MND302] (distinct from the previously described mandrill SIV[MNDGB1]), and that from the drill SIV[DRL207].
Prior to the Simon et al. presentation, University of Alabama researcher Beatrice Hahn announced at the same meeting that her laboratory could confirm the suspected chimpanzee origin of HIV-1.
Monkeys infected with the strain of SIV endemic to their species do not get AIDS (primate models of AIDS employ viruses that originated in different species). Hahn stated the obvious: that it would be of vital importance to understand how animals similar to humans get a virus similar to HIV and yet remain disease free. But she noted that chimpanzees, like many primates, are endangered species.
"We need to make a concerted effort to conserve this vital species," she said. "We need to conserve the diversity of chimps as well as virus. If we lose these animals it would be a tremendous loss. We really can't let a species that is so closely related to us go."
Simon et al. went further, calling for international efforts to end human predation on primates.
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