title: Isolation of a T-lymphotropic retrovirus from naturally infected sooty mangabey monkeys (Cercocebus atys).
abstract: Healthy mangabey monkeys in a colony at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center were found to be infected with a retrovirus related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Virus was isolated from peripheral blood cells of 14 of 15 randomly selected mangabeys. All virus-positive animals had antibodies to the mangabey virus at the time of virus isolation and, in a retrospective study, 82% of mangabey serum samples obtained in 1981 had antibodies to the virus. The newly isolated retrovirus is (i) morphologically identical to HIV by electron microscopy; (ii) serologically related to the human virus by enzyme immunoassay, immunoblotting experiments, radioimmunoprecipitation, and neutralization; and (iii) cytopathic for human OKT4+ cells. The mangabey virus also shares these properties with the simian T-lymphotropic virus type III (STLV-III) recently isolated from diseased macaques and from healthy African green monkeys (STLV-IIIAGM). However, the mangabey virus, like STLV-IIIAGM, differs from both HIV and STLV-III in that it apparently does not cause clinical immunodeficiency or disease following natural infection of the host from which it was isolated. Comparison of the virus-host interactions of these isolates may be valuable in defining determinants of pathogenicity for cytopathic retroviruses.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D002520:Cercopithecidae / Q000382:microbiology*; D003429:Cross Reactions; D017977:Deltaretrovirus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008992:Monkey Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000382:microbiology*; D014776:Virus Cultivation
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral