The HIV-1 pandemic: does the selective sweep in chimpanzees mirror humankind’s future?

Abstract

An HIV-1 infection progresses in most human individuals sooner or later into AIDS, a devastating disease that kills more than a million people worldwide on an annual basis. Nonetheless, certain HIV-1-infected persons appear to act as long-term non-progressors, and elite control is associated with the presence of particular MHC class I allotypes such as HLA-B*27 or -B*57. The HIV-1 pandemic in humans arose from the cross-species transmission of SIVcpz originating from chimpanzees. Chimpanzees, however, appear to be relatively resistant to developing AIDS after HIV-1/SIVcpz infection. Mounting evidence illustrates that, in the distant past, chimpanzees experienced a selective sweep resulting in a severe reduction of their MHC class I repertoire. This was most likely caused by an HIV-1/SIV-like retrovirus, suggesting that chimpanzees may have experienced long-lasting host-virus relationships with SIV-like viruses. Hence, if natural selection is allowed to follow its course, prospects for the human population may look grim, thus underscoring the desperate need for an effective vaccine.

Nonhuman Primates

“…Chimpanzees played a unique role in the aerospace research programs of the 1950s and 1960s, when 'Ham' the chimpanzee was the first hominidae launched into outer space on January 31, 1961 (Swenson et al, 1966). From the 1970s to the mid-2010s, the chimpanzee has been a valuable model in investigating human infectious diseases (hepatitis A, B, C; respiratory syncytial virus; Ebola virus, malaria, and HIV) and associated vaccine development (Robertson et al, 1994;Karron et al, 1997;Prince and Brotman, 2001;Liang, 2013;De Groot and Bontrop, 2013;Nébié et al, 2014;Stanley et al, 2014). During the 1970s-1980s era, they were important animal models in cognition and language studies (Terrace et al, 1979).…”

Co‐evolution of the MHC class I and KIR gene families in rhesus macaques: ancestry and plasticity

“…Classical MHC class I genes display polymorphism, and each allotype has the property to bind its own spectrum of peptides. The biological relevance of allelic polymorphism is to minimize the possibility of one particular pathogen decimating an entire population . In accordance with this school of thought, many MHC class I allotypes may control either susceptibility or resistance to a large variety of chronic and infectious diseases.…”

Natural pathology of the captive chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes): A 35‐year review

“…Although several chimpanzees in this study group were chronically infected with HBV, HCV, and HIV, we did not find any statistical correlation between viral status and liver diseases. This is not an unexpected finding given that chimpanzees infected with these viruses rarely develop clinically significant disease . Despite extensive control measures, nematodiasis (pinworms; Enterobius spp .)…”

“…This is not an unexpected finding given that chimpanzees infected with these viruses rarely develop clinically significant disease. [99][100][101] Despite extensive control measures, nematodiasis (pinworms; Enterobius spp.) remains prevalent in our colony and other captive colonies.…”