
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990                   TAG: 9005240119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

CHIMP VIRUS DISCOVERED CLOSELY RESEMBLING HIV

A recently isolated chimpanzee virus is more closely related to the human AIDS virus than other AIDS-related monkey viruses are, and may be a "missing link" between human and primate versions, scientists say.

However, the finding does not resolve the question of whether the AIDS virus originated in humans or in animals, scientists said.

Analysis of the chimpanzee virus is presented in today's issue of the British journal Nature by scientists from Gabon and from the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Analysis of the new virus showed it was the first non-human lentivirus to contain the same overall genetic structure as HIV-1, the researchers reported.

Nonetheless, when compared to the range of known genetic variants of HIV-1, the chimp virus lay outside that range, the researchers said. - Associated Press

by CNB