New Human HIV from Gorillas

Date: Mon 3 Aug 2009
Source: Medical News Today [edited]
<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159623.php>


Scientists Find New Human HIV From Gorillas
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Scientists who found a new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in a
Cameroonian woman living in Paris, have discovered it is an unusual
variant of HIV-1 that could have come from gorillas. The research
that led to the findings was headed by Dr Jean-Christophe Plantier of
the University of Rouen in France and is published in the 2 Aug 2009
online issue of Nature Medicine. Drs David Robertson and Jonathan
Dickerson from the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of
Manchester, UK, were also involved in the study.

There are 3 established lineages of HIV-1, known as M, N, and O,
which came from chimpanzees, but this new variant appears to be the
prototype of a new lineage derived from gorillas and shows no
evidence of recombination with the other known lineages, wrote the
researchers. They propose that the new lineage be called HIV-1 group P.

There are 33 million people worldwide living with AIDS which is
caused by the HIV-1 virus group M (groups N and O are mainly confined
to Cameroon). HIV is a product of cross-species transmission of
simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) found in chimpanzees, thought to
have crossed to humans from eating infected bush meat. While 1st
recognized in 1980, HIV is thought to have started some 80 years
earlier in and around the African country that is now called the
Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 62-year old Cameroonian woman at the centre of the study moved to
Paris in 2004 and began to have symptoms shortly afterwards. Her
blood sample showed discrepancies in her viral load, and further
tests revealed she was infected with a new strain of HIV that more
closely resembled SIV from gorillas than HIV from humans. However,
before moving to Paris the woman had lived in a semi-urban part of
the central west African Republic of Cameroon; she had not come into
contact with bush meat or gorillas.

Because of this information and the fact further tests showed that
the virus was able to replicate in human cells, the scientists
suggest the strain may well appear elsewhere. Robertson told the
media that: "The discovery of this novel HIV-1 lineage highlights the
continuing need to monitor closely for the emergence of new HIV
variants. This demonstrates that HIV evolution is an ongoing process.
The virus can jump from species to species, from primate to primate,
and that includes us; pathogens have been with us for millions of
years and routinely switch host species," he added.

In the same way as the current swine flu pandemic is showing us, this
is another example of how viruses can now move very quickly around
the world because nowadays large numbers of humans travel long
distances in a short space of time.

Plantier's team in France are part of a network of laboratories that
has been monitoring HIV genetic diversity, while The Manchester Life
Sciences team helped with the computer-based evolutionary analysis.

[Byline: Catharine Paddock, PhD]