Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
spontaneous cases of lymphoma that had first occurred at
the California NPRC and that had also been later recog-
nized elsewhere (
Daniel et al., 1984; Marx et al., 1984;
Stromberg et al., 1984
). SRV infection, because it did not
clinically mimic AIDS, did not become a popular model for
research on AIDS. However, its discovery was important in
settling any remaining doubts about an infectious agent
being a cause of immunodeficiency disease in macaques.
More important was an appreciation that, given the
understanding of SRV's adverse impact on immune func-
tion and the problems it posed as a naturally occurring
pathogen in macaques requiring an intact immune system,
nonhuman primates infected with it would not be suitable
for use in AIDS studies.
The identification of the cause of the principal immu-
nodeficiency disease being widely seen in macaques was
preceded by the discovery of HIV (HTLV III or LAV as it
was first known:
Barr
ยด
-Sinoussi et al., 1983; Gallo et al.,
1984, Popovic et al., 1984
). The macaque pathogen, SIV,
was first identified by investigators at the New England
NPRC and later at several other centers including the
California, Washington, Tulane, and Yerkes NPRCs
(
Daniel et al., 1985; Letvin et al., 1985; Baskin et al., 1986;
Benveniste et al., 1986; Fultz et al., 1986; Lowenstine et al.,
1992
). At the time, clinicians and investigators at each
center involved generally felt that they were seeing some-
thing unique and the strains that were isolated bore as many
different names as the places where they were found. Each
center also shared in the competitive excitement that it had
a primate model with potential value for AIDS research.
The details of this story have been well-summarized by
Voevodin and Marx (2009)
.
It was not until much later that evidence emerged from
a molecular epidemiological study showing that all the
strains isolated probably had their origin in apparently
infected sooty mangabey monkeys (
Mansfield et al., 1995;
Apetrei et al., 2005
). Furthermore, the findings pointed to
the California NPRC as the place where macaques had
become infected with the index SIVsm (for sooty
mangabey) strain that was subsequently isolated from
infected animals at the New England, Yerkes, Washington,
and Tulane NPRCs as well as the New Iberia Research
Center in New Iberia, Louisiana. Strongly supporting this
was the fact that ample opportunity had been provided
earlier at the California NPRC for the inadvertent trans-
mission of SIVsm from sooty mangabeys to macaques
being used there in Carlton Gajdusek's research work
(
Apetrei et al., 2006
). The species had not only been kept in
close physical association there, but the work itself also
involved the interspecies inoculation of biological mate-
rials (
Apetrei et al., 2006
; R. V. Henrickson, personal
communication, 2010). From the California NPRC, it is
likely that SIV was disseminated elsewhere from the
original index cases through the exchange of animals and
clinical or laboratory materials that often occurred between
the centers.
It is uncertain how much the clinical experience with
retroviral infections in nonhuman primates might have had
to do with the actual discovery of HIV. However, it is true
that HIV co-discoverer Robert Gallo worked with
nonhuman primates, with just one example being his
connection with discovering a new strain of GALV (
Reitz
et al., 1979
). He was certainly familiar with the body
of research on retroviral-induced immunodeficiency in
nonhuman primates. What is certain is that just when the
need for a nonhuman primate model of AIDS was needed,
the clinical and research experience that had been gained
with retroviral-induced immunodeficiency disease
in
nonhuman primates was there to provide that model.
With the discovery of the SIV model, the NPRCs had
clearly become frontline players in the rapidly expanding
national AIDS research effort. AIDS provided a powerful
reason for justifying earlier investments in nonhuman
primates, resources, and nonhuman primate medicine.
Without this investment and the foundation of work that
was done on viral oncology and retroviruses, AIDS
research could have well been delayed. Funds provided to
the centers for AIDS research were also used to expand
breeding and provide the special containment facilities that
were needed. This occurred at a time when funding for
other areas of research in general was level or declining.
Emergence and Impact of the Animal
Rights Movement
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Nonhuman primates had not been of great interest to animal
protectionists, anti-vivisectionists, or animal rightists prior
to the 1980s. How that changed was well documented by
Deborah Blum, a reporter for the Sacramento Bee (
Blum,
1994
). The first of two developments that firmly placed
nonhuman primates on the front line of public concern
occurred in July 1980. Alex Pacheco, a founder of the
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), made
an animal cruelty complaint to local police about condi-
tions and practices in the Institute for Behavioral Research
laboratory of Edward Taub in the Washington, DC suburb
of Silver Spring, Maryland. Pacheco had signed on as
a worker in the laboratory and used the opportunity to
assemble documentation, including pictures, of the nerve
regeneration studies in macaques being done there
(
McCabe, 1990
). All of Taub's monkeys were confiscated
by the police and placed by the court in the custody of the
NIH. They were later moved to the Tulane NPRC during
the years of litigation that followed.
The charges against Taub were dismissed on procedural
grounds at an early stage, but controversy continued about
