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Specialists from the Aaron Diamond (ΑDΑRC) AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller University in New York, led by Theodora Hatzhiioannou, a scientist of Greek origin, have found new possibilities for AIDS research and treatment as they have been able to infect monkeys with HIV. The scientists have published the results of their study in the prestigious Science magazine.
 
This is the first time that it becomes possible to infect non-human primates with HIV. This can significantly accelerate the research for the discovery of a vaccine and, in general, of antiviral pharmaceutical therapies for the deadly disease.

Until now, human beings could only be infected with the HIV virus and, very rarely, only chimpanzees from among experimental animals, as they are the closest to humans. For the study of the virus in their laboratories, scientists are usually forced to resort to its sister SΙV virus (alone or in combination with HIV), which easily infects apes and non-human primates and which is similar to the HIV virus, but not the same, which restricts its use in favour of humans.
 
This is the first time that, after many years of experimenting, the Greek researcher and her colleagues have developed a model of macaque that is infected with almost the same HIV virus that infects people. The specialists have failed to do so by modifying the HIV-1 virus (which is responsible for the majority of the cases of AIDS in humans) with a protein derived from the SIV virus, which "disarms" the immune system of the animal. In addition, the scientists have been able to transfer the modified virus from one macaque to another (in six generations of animals in total). This allows the virus to gradually accumulate a number of mutations that make it capable of infecting the cells of carriers.

Prof. Theodora Hatzhiioannou graduated from the University of Bristol, UK, and then subsequently obtained her MSc from Imperial College of London. She obtained her PhD from Claude Bernard University in Lyon, France, in 1999, and carried out a postdoctoral research at Columbia and Rockefeller Universities (Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center) where she continued her career, as an assistant professor after 2006 and associate professor after 2012.