Title

Hypothetical endogenous SIV-like antigens in Mauritian cynomolgus macaques

Authors

Hongzhao Li¹, Lin Li², Lewis R. Liu¹, Robert W. Omange¹, Nikki Toledo¹, Mohammad Abul Kashem¹, Yan Hai¹, Binhua Liang^{2, 3}, Francis A. Plummer^{1, 2}, Ma Luo^{1, 2*}

Affiliation

¹Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3E 0J9, Canada;

²National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3L5, Canada; ³Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3N4, Canada;

Email

Ma.Luo@phac-aspc.gc.ca; Ma.Luo@umanitoba.ca;

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received December 22, 2017; Revised January 2, 2018; Accepted January 3, 2018; Published February 28, 2018

Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection of Mauritian cynomolgus macaques (MCMs) is an increasingly important nonhuman primate model for HIV vaccine research. We previously reported that in MCMs anti-SIV antibodies can be naturally developed without exogenous infection or vaccination, and that a vaccine targeting SIV protease cleavage sites (PCS) can cross-induce antibodies to non-PCS SIV antigens. We speculate that this is potentially caused by the existence of endogenous SIV-like antigens. External stimuli (such as environmental factors and vaccination) may induce expression of endogenous SIV-like antigens to elicit these antibodies. Database and mass spectrometry analyses were conducted to search for such antigens. We identified endogenous SIV-like DNA sequences in cynomolgus macaque genome and non-PCS peptide homologous to SIV Env protein in PBMCs of a PCS-vaccinated monkey. Our preliminary insights suggest that endogenous SIV-like antigens may be one of the possible reasons for the natural and cross-inducible SIV antibodies in MCMs.

Keywords

SIV, Mauritian cynomolgus macaques, HIV, vaccine, protease cleavage sites (PCS), non-PCS, database

Citation

Li et al. Bioinformation 14(2): 48-52 (2018)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.