title: Using the pathogenic and nonpathogenic nonhuman primate model for studying non-AIDS comorbidities.
abstract: With the advent of antiretroviral therapy that can control virus replication below the detection levels of conventional assays, a new clinical landscape of AIDS emerged, in which non-AIDS complications prevail over AIDS-defining conditions. These comorbidities are diverse and affect multiple organs, thus resulting in cardiovascular, kidney, neurocognitive and liver disease, osteopenia/osteoporosis, and cancers. A common feature of these conditions is that they are generally associated with accelerated aging. The mechanism behind these comorbidities is chronic excessive inflammation induced by HIV infection, which persists under antiretroviral therapy. Progressive simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of nonhuman primates (NHPs) closely reproduces these comorbidities and offers a simplified system in which most of the traditional human risk factors for comorbidities (i.e., smoking, hyperlipidemia) are absent. Additionally, experimental conditions can be properly controlled during a shorter course of disease for SIV infection. As such, NHPs can be employed to characterize new paradigms of AIDS pathogenesis and to test the efficacy of interventions aimed at alleviating non-AIDS-related comorbidities.
authors.affiliation: Center for Vaccine Research and Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, 9014 Biomedical Science Tower 3, 3501 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261-9045, USA, pandrea@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Ivona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pandrea
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Landay
authors.forename: Cara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stock
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tracy
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Apetrei
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000453:epidemiology; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D008251:Macaca; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology; D016097:Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015302:Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000472:pathogenicity