Simian immunodeficiency virus of African green monkeys is apathogenic in the newborn natural host

Several studies have demonstrated that newborn animals are more susceptible to disease development following infection with retroviruses than adults. Adult African green monkeys (AGMs) infected with SIVagm do not develop AIDS-like disease and the objective of the study was to determine whether experimental infection of newborn AGMs with SIVagm would result in pathogenesis. Neonatal AGMs were found to have a higher percentage of circulating CD4(+) lymphocytes than adults (62% versus 14%) and therefore a higher potential pool of target cells for SIVagm infection. However, no differences in the in vitro replication kinetics of SIVagm in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of adult or neonatal AGMs could be observed. In vivo, the neonatal AGMs became viremic at the earliest two months after inoculation whereas the adult AGMs had evidence of virus replication already 2 to 6 weeks after infection. None of the animals developed AIDS-like symptoms upon infection. In the heterologous cynomolgus macaque host, a newborn infected with SIVagm developed early high virus loads and died two months after birth with AIDS-like histopathologic features. It would therefore appear that in contrast to the situation with many other retroviruses, newborn AGMs are no more permissive to SIVagm than are adults.