The Study Of MazF Gene Therapy On AIDS Rhesus Monkeys Model

SHFV infection of rhesus macaques provides a reliable and popular model to study HIV/ADDS on abroad, and it is better than SFV infection animal models. SHIV animal models are now undertook in our country. In this research, rhesus macaques of Chinese origin, which were transduced MazF gene or not transduced, were inoculated intravenously with 10 MID50 of SHIV-KB9, we monitored clinical manifestation, viremia, immunology and gene copies.9 rhesus macaques were used in this study. All the rhesus macaques were screened by serological test to ensure that they were free of SFV, SRV , STLV and BV infection.They were divided into three groups, blank group(T-bc), control group(T01,T02) and experimental group(T03,T04,T05,T06,T-Mar and T-Jun). PBMC were collected by Cobe Spectra blood cell separators and by drawing 75mL blood, then to isolate CD4+T and proliferate ex vivo and transduce MazF gene. When cell culture was over, to harvest the cells(transduced or not transduced) and re-infuse the cells into rhesus macaques. Finally, all rhesus macaques were inoculated with SHTV-KB9,except T-Mar,T-Jun and T-bc. Blood samples were collected at different time according to the time schedule, to do blood composition anaysis, and prepare both plasma and PBMC for viral RNA by Real Time RT-PCR and FACS / MazF gene copy assay, respectively.The results showed the viral load peak was put off 11 days contrast to blank group and about 2 weeks late according to documents, the level of plasma viremia was lower about 100 times than blank group, CD4+T cell count and CD4/CD8 ratio were stable. All animals did not involved in AIDS at the end of this experiment.Conclusion: Re-infusing the transduced cells into monkeys can delay the viral load peak, it is partially useful in therapy SHIV/AIDS animal models, but the exact effect of MazF will be reseached further.