Induction of B Cell Hyperplasia in Simian Immunodeficiency Virus–Infected Rhesus Macaques with the Simian Homologue of Kaposi's Sarcoma–Associated Herpesvirus

A simian homologue of Kaposi's sarcoma–associated herpesvirus (KSHV), the eighth human herpesvirus (HHV8), was isolated from a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) that developed a multicentric lymphoproliferative disorder (LPD). This simian rhadinovirus is genetically similar to a recently described rhesus rhadinovirus (RRV) (Desrosiers, R.C., V.G. Sasseville, S.C. Czajak, X. Zhang, K.G. Mansfield, A. Kaur, R.P. Johnson, A.A. Lackner, and J.U. Jung. 1997. J. Virol. 71:9764–9769) and is designated RRV 17577. RRV 17577 was experimentally inoculated into rhesus macaques with and without SIVmac239 infection to determine if RRV played a role in development of the LPD observed in the index case. In contrast to control animals inoculated with SIVmac239 or RRV alone, two animals coinfected with SIVmac239 and RRV 17577 developed hyperplastic LPD resembling the multicentric plasma cell variant of Castleman's disease, characterized by persistent angiofollicular lymphadenopathy, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and hypergammaglobulinemia. Hypergammaglobulinemia was associated with severe immune-mediated hemolytic anemia in one RRV/SIV-infected macaque. Both