THE CAT FELINE IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS MODEL FOR TRANSMUCOSAL TRANSMISSION OF AIDS - NONOXYNOL-9 CONTRACEPTIVE JELLY BLOCKS TRANSMISSION BY AN INFECTED CELL INOCULUM

Objectives: To develop an animal model to study transmucosal lentiviru s transmission, and to determine whether topical application of contra ceptive jelly can block transmission by an infected cell incoulum. Des ign: Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), a lentivirus similar to HIV, causes an AIDS-like disease in domestic cats. HIV is transmitted prim arily across mucosal surfaces, and infected cells may be important in this transmission. We tested the ability of FIV-infected cells to tran smit infection across the vaginal, rectal and oral mucosa of the cat, and whether a vaginal contraceptive jelly could prevent such transmiss ion. Methods: An inoculum consisting of 2 million FIV-infected primary cat T cells was administered vaginally, rectally or orally to female cats that had received either no pretreatment or pretreatment with a c ontraceptive jelly containing the detergent nonoxynol-9 as spermicide. Transmission was detected by monitoring recipient animals for viral a ntibodies and by viral cultures of blood leukocytes. Results: A single dose of the infected cell inoculum efficiently transmitted FIV infect ion when delivered into the vagina or rectum (10 out of 11 animals bec ame infected). Pretreatment of the vagina (five animals) or rectum (fo ur animals) with contraceptvie jelly protected all animals from trasnm ission by the highly infectious inoculum. Conclusions. The cat/FIV mod el provides an efficient means to study transmucosal transmission of l entivirus infections, and for assessing vaginal barrier methods that c ould block transmission. One such method, nonoxynol-9 contraceptive je lly, effectively prevents transmucosal transmission by an FIV-infected cell inoculum.