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Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is a retrovirus that is found, in numerous strains, in primates; the strains infecting humans are HIV-1 and HIV-2, the viruses that cause AIDS.
The origin of HIV is now generally attributed to SIV from African primates. HIV-2 is most closely related to SIV-sm, the SIV strain from Sooty Mangabey. HIV-1 is closely related to the chimpanzee strain of SIV, SIV-cpz.
SIV monkey strains usually don't cause disease in their natural hosts; this is usually taken to mean that host and virus have evolved together for a long time. However, SIV strains may cause an AIDS like immune deficiency known as SAIDS (Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) if they cross species bounderies. For example, SIV-agm, the SIV strain from African Green Monkeys, causes SAIDS in Rhesus Macaques.
The monkey SIV strains do not infect humans and HIV-1 does not infect monkeys. In 2004, this was explained by different variants of the protein TRIM5α in humans and monkeys. This intracellular protein recognizes the capsid of various retroviruses and blocks their reproduction.
To better study HIV/AIDS in animal models, researchers have created various HIV-SIV chimeras, viruses whose genome partly comes from HIV and partly from SIV. These are often referred to as SHIV.
The Virus Code of SIV is 61.0.6.5.003.
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