Route of simian immunodeficiency virus inoculation determines the complexity but not the identity of viral variant populations that infect rhesus macaques.

A better understanding of the host and viral factors associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission is essential to developing effective strategies to curb the global HIV epidemic. Here we used the rhesus macaque-simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) animal model of HIV infection to study the range of viral genotypes that are transmitted by different routes of inoculation and by different types of viral inocula. Analysis of transmitted variants was undertaken in outbred rhesus macaques inoculated intravenously (IV) or intravaginally (IVAG) with a genetically heterogeneous SIVmac251 stock derived from a well-characterized rhesus macaque viral isolate. In addition, we performed serial IV and IVAG passage experiments using plasma from SIV-infected macaques as the inoculum. We analyzed the V1-V2 region of the SIV envelope gene from virion-associated RNA in plasma from infected animals by the heteroduplex mobility assay (HMA) and by DNA sequence analysis. We found that a more diverse population of SIV genetic variants was present in the earliest virus-positive plasma samples from all five IV SIVmac251-inoculated monkeys and from two of five IVAG SIVmac251-inoculated monkeys. In contrast, we found a relatively homogeneous population of SIV envelope variants in three of five monkeys inoculated IVAG with SIVmac251 stock and in two monkeys infected after IVAG inoculation with plasma from an SIV-infected animal. In some IVAG-inoculated animals, the transmitted SIV variant was the most common variant in the inoculum. However, a specific viral variant in the SIVmac251 stock was not consistently transmitted by IVAG inoculation. Thus, it is likely that host factors or stochastic processes determine the specific viral variants that infect an animal after IVAG SIV exposure. In addition, our results clearly demonstrate that the route of inoculation is associated with the extent and breadth of the genetic complexity of the viral variant population in the earliest stages of systemic infection.

A zidovudine-resistant simian immunodeficiency virus mutant with a Q151M mutation in reverse transcriptase causes AIDS in newborn macaques.

The simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-newborn rhesus macaque model of AIDS can be used to study directly the virulence of viral mutants which are resistant to antiviral drugs. A viral mutant called SIVmac79A6.1, isolated from an SIV-infected macaque after prolonged zidovudine treatment, was found to have a double-base-pair change at codon 151 of reverse transcriptase, resulting in a glutamine to methionine substitution (Q151M). This mutation was associated with more than 100-fold increased resistance to zidovudine and low-level cross-resistance to other dideoxynucleoside analogs. To determine whether this Q151M mutation affects viral virulence, four newborn macaques were inoculated intravenously with a biological clone of this drug-resistant SIVmac79A6.1 mutant; two of these animals were also treated orally with zidovudine. All four animals showed persistent viremia, and two of the four animals developed fatal immunodeficiency at 3 and 8 months of age, respectively. The remaining two animals had CD4+ T-cell depletion and clinical symptoms of AIDS at 22 months. No phenotypic or genotypic reversion of virus to the wild type could be detected in any of the four animals. These results demonstrate that the Q151M mutation in SIV reverse transcriptase does not reduce viral virulence.