SIMILAR PATTERNS OF SIMIAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS ENV SEQUENCES ARE FOUND IN THE BLOOD AND LYMPHOID-TISSUES OF CHRONICALLY INFECTED MACAQUES

Two cynomolgus macaques were infected with a genetically complex chall enge stock of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVmac251-32H). One anima l developed SIV-induced disease and was sacrificed at 16 months postin fection, The second remained healthy until it too was sacrificed at 20 months postinfection. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify env gp120-coding sequences from provirus present in samples o f blood, spleen, and inguinal lymph node taken from both animals on th e day of sacrifice, The proviral burden present in each of the tissue samples was also determined using a quantitative PCR assay, The provir al burdens in the blood, spleen, and inguinal lymph node of the health y animal (I225) were similar. This was not the case for animal I227, i n which the burden in the inguinal lymph node was much higher than for blood or spleen. Phenogram analysis of the hypervariable V1 region of env revealed that the diversity of nucleotide sequences recovered fro m each tissue of both macaques were similar and overlapping. Some sele cted amino acid differences were observed that were specific for a tis sue or one of the macaques. However, the results do not suggest that t he overall evolution of env in provirus populations recovered from lym phoid tissues is distinct from that recovered from the blood.