HIV's Primate Origins More Recent Than Previously Believed

It is common knowledge that the HIV/AIDS pandemic in humans was ignited by the transmission of simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV) in chimpanzees and monkeys. Now, in a surprising discovery, scientists have found that the ancestors of SIVs originated just a few centuries ago.

The new study from The University of Arizona in Tucson revealed that these ages are substantially younger than previous estimates.

Researchers Concerned as AIDS Vaccine Still Out of Reach
A quarter of a century since the virus that causes AIDS was identified, a vaccine against the deadly disease remains frustratingly out of reach despite a well-funded global effort to find a cure.

SIV has crossed over from chimpanzees and sooty mangabeys to humans at least eleven times, giving rise to several HIV lineages.

While HIV is a virulent pathogen in humans, SIV rarely causes disease in these species or the dozens of other African primate species it naturally infects.

And because these non-human primates typically remain unaffected after virus exposure, scientists had hypothesised that there had been millions of years of coevolution between SIVs and their primate hosts.

Sudden Loss of T Cells Not the Trigger for AIDS: Study
A new study has suggested that a sudden loss of T cells is not the trigger for the progression of AIDS.

But, in the new study, researchers, Joel Wertheim and Dr. Michael Worobey, estimated a rate of virus evolution using viral genetic sequences that had been isolated from infected humans, chimpanzees, and sooty mangabeys between 1975 and 2005.

And their analysis revealed that the viruses currently circulating in sooty mangabeys and in chimpanzees evolved from ancestors dating to 1809 and 1492, respectively.

Monkey Virus Identical To HIV Endemic In Gorillas
A virus identical to HIV is endemic among wild gorillas in Africa and its source of transmission was probably through chimpanzees.

To their surprise, they found that the independently estimated 'molecular clock' of the monkey viruses was virtually identical to the famously swift rate at which mutations accumulate in HIV genomes.

The authors pointed out that unaccounted-for biases could be masking a deeper age of SIV.

Chronic binge drinking can hasten HIV development
Recent study reveals that constant heavy drinking can quicken the advancement of end-stage simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) among rhesus macaques.

They suggested that presence of these biases indicates a need for investigation because they might also affect the ability to properly estimate the age of HIV and other viruses.

The study is published in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Source-ANI
TAN/L