KURU EXPERIMENTS TRIGGERED THE EMERGENCE OF PATHOGENIC SIVMAC

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. We have identified three lines of evidence which show that the pathogenic SIVmac strains used in AIDS animal model studies most likely originated as a result of kuru experiments conducted in the US in the 1970s. Specifically we have found: (1) A strong link in the time and location of experiments involving intracranial passaging of sooty mangabey brain tissue to macaques and SIVmac emergence. (2) A significant association of clusters of SIVmac strains within kuru study groups. And, (3) Confirmation of seroconversion in the specific macaques used in the kuru experiments. Therefore, it is plausible that highly invasive experimental manipulations, and not casual contact, inadvertently gave rise to a highly pathogenic SIV isolate, used from the 1980¿s to the present time.