Why Some Primates, But Not Humans, Can Live With Immunodeficiency Viruses And Not Progress To AIDS
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 14:28
in Health & Medicine
Some primate species, including sooty mangabeys, harbor simian immunodeficiency viruses but remain healthy, unlike rhesus macaques. The immune systems of sooty mangabeys become significantly less activated during SIV infection than the immune systems of macaques. The less vigorous immune response to SIV in mangabeys may be an effective evolutionary response to a virus that resists clearance by antiviral immune responses. New treatment strategies that would steer the immune system away from over-activation could protect against the unintended damage caused by host immune responses.