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The natural history of non-human GB virus C in captive chimpanzees
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

The natural history of non-human GB virus C in captive chimpanzees

Emma L Mohr, Krishna K Murthy, James H McLinden, Jinhua Xiang and Jack T Stapleton
Journal of general virology, Vol.92(Pt 1), pp.91-100
01/2011
DOI: 10.1099/vir.0.026088-0
PMCID: PMC3052534
PMID: 20861317
url
https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.026088-0View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

GB virus C (GBV-C) is a common, non-pathogenic human virus that infects lymphocytes. Persistent GBV-C infection of humans with coexistent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is associated with prolonged survival, and GBV-C replication inhibits HIV replication in vitro . A GBV-C virus variant was identified in chimpanzees in 1998 and was named GBV-C trog or GBV-C cpz . The prevalence and natural history of GBV-C in chimpanzees remains uncharacterized. We examined the sera from 235 captive chimpanzees for the presence of GBV-C viraemia, viral persistence and clearance, E2 antibody kinetics and RNA sequence diversity. Sequences from six isolates shared more sequence identity with GBV-C cpz than with human GBV-C. The prevalence of GBV-C cpz viraemia and E2 antibody in chimpanzees (2.5 and 11 %, respectively) was similar to human GBV-C prevalence in healthy human blood donors (1.8 and 9 %, respectively). Persistent GBV-C cpz infection occurred in two of the six viraemic animals and was documented for 19 years in one animal. Host subspecies troglodyte GBV-C isolates and published verus GBV-C isolates shared a high degree of sequence identity, suggesting that GBV-C in chimpanzees should be identified with a chimpanzee designation (GBV-C cpz ). The prevalence and natural history of chimpanzee GBV-C variant (GBV-C cpz ) appears to be similar to human GBV-C infection. The chimpanzee could serve as an animal model to study HIV–GBV-C co-infection.
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