The CD8⁺ T Lymphocyte Response during Primary SIVmac Infection

Abstract

Defining the primary CD8⁺ T lymphocyte response to HIV is of central importance in clarifying how the host’s immune system contains the spread of the virus. It is extremely difficult to study this immune response in HIV-infected humans, since infected individuals rarely come to the attention of clinicians until weeks or months following initial exposure to the virus. The SIVmac-infected rhesus monkey provides a powerful model to study AIDS immunopathogenesis. SIVmac has substantial sequence homology with HIV and induces an AIDS-like disease in these monkeys characterized by CD4⁺ lymphocyte loss, wasting and death due to opportunistic infections and lymphomas. The CD8⁺ T lymphocyte response to SIVmac was studied during primary infection in rhesus monkeys to characterize its temporal evolution, anatomic distribution, clonality and magnitude.