Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) Infection in the Cat as a Model for HIV Infection in Man: FIV-Induced Impairment of Immune Function

Abstract

To assess the value of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection as a model for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in man, we studied the impairment of certain immunological functions following natural or experimental FIV infection. Proliferative responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from symptomatic and asymptomatic cats after naturally or experimentally acquired FIV infection, induced by activation with the mitogens concanavalin A, pokeweed mitogen, or lipopolysaccharide or by stimulation with human interleukin-2 (IL-2), were significantly lower than the proliferative responses found with PBMC from noninfected control cats. Also IL-2 production levels of mitogen-activated PBMC from naturally infected symptomatic cats were significantly reduced. These data confirm that the pathogenesis of FIV infection in the cat, like HIV infection in man, is characterized by a serious malfunction of the immune system.

Effect of Bovine Lactoferrin on Functions of Activated Feline Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells During Chronic Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

“…The level of spontaneous IFN-γ expression in PBMC of the ARC group did not differ from that of FIV-negative group (Table 1A), and this result was in agreement with the results in symptomatic HIVinfected patients and FIV-positive cats [11,32]. However, the ARC group had profound attenuation of ConA-induced IFN-γ and IL-2 expression (Table 1B), which was in agreement with other studies [16,30]. Thus, these findings support the idea that symptomatic FIV-positive cats failed to perform PBMC functions properly despite their activated status.…”

Comparative study of the cell tropism of feline immunodeficiency virus isolates of subtypes A, B and D classified on the basis of the env gene V3-V5 sequence

“…amounts of individual lymphocyte subsets, decreases in lymphocyte blastogenesis responses to concanavalin A, pokeweed mitogen and phytohaemagglutinin, and in primary responses to T cell-dependent antigens were observed (Lin et al, 1990;Siebelink et al, 1990;Taniguchi et al, 1990Taniguchi et al, , 1991Torten et al, 1991).…”

The secondary structure of the 5′ end of the FIV genome reveals a long-range interaction between R/U5 and gag sequences, and a large, stable stem–loop

“…Like HIV, FIV causes in its host, the domestic cat, a prolonged disease that is characterized by progressive depletion of CD4 + T cells, ultimately leading to a fatal immunodeficiency (Pedersen et al 1987;Yamamoto et al 1988;Siebelink et al 1990). Many other parallels exist between the two viruses and these render FIV infection in cats a potentially useful small animal model for HIV (Olmsted et al 1989; and reviewed in Elder et al 2008).…”