Natural SIV Hosts: Showing AIDS the Door

Abstract

Lessons from SIV HIV infection in humans is a chronic infection and, if left untreated, the majority of infected individuals will succumb to AIDS. Many species of African nonhuman primates are chronically infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV); however, in the majority of these species, the animals remain healthy despite the presence of high viral loads. Chahroudi et al. (p. 1188 ) review the underlying immune mechanisms that help protect natural hosts from progressing to AIDS and how these responses differ from what is observed in HIV-infected humans and SIV-infected nonhuman primate species that develop AIDS.