FIV vaccine development: a continuing challenge

__Abstract__ \n \nThree years after the identification of HIV-1 as the causative agent of an \nacquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans in 1983, another member \nof the Lentiviridae family was discovered in a cattery in Petaluma, California. \nOriginally named feline T-lymphotropic lentivirus, the virus was finally named feline \nimmunodeficiency virus (FIV). Within the Lentiviridae family, FIV is placed between \nthe primate lentiviruses HIV and SIV on the one hand and the ungulate viruses Visna \nvirus, CAEV, EIAV and BIV on the other hand, on the basis of genome structure \nand organisation (Figures 1A and 2). Although FIV is phylogenetically more distant \nfrom HIV-1 than the primate lentiviruses it shares many structural and biochemical \ncharacteristics with HIV and given the close resemblance of the pathogeneses of \ninfections with both viruses in their respective hosts, FIV infection of the domestic \ncat (Felis catus) has established itself, in the two decades that have past since its \nidentification, as an excellent small animal model for lentiviral infections in general \nand lentivirus vaccine development in particular.