title: Murine and simian retrovirus models: the threshold hypothesis.
abstract: By considering the dynamic relationship between retroviruses and their hosts, we have developed a unifying hypothesis to explain such disparate clinical phenomena as differential pathogenicity of a given virus in adults and neonates, transient infection with clearance of provirus-containing cells, long-term non-progression and vaccine effects of fully pathogenic viruses. The threshold hypothesis predicts that an opportunity exists during acute retroviral infection to influence the ultimate clinical outcome: if virus replication is kept below threshold by any means, including drug therapy or passive immunoprophylaxis with neutralizing antibodies, the host will prevail and win the race.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Viral Pathogenesis, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Ruprecht
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Baba
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Sharma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018450:Disease Progression; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D000882:Haplorhini; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D012190:Retroviridae