Figure 1. Nonhuman primate models to study viral diseases in humans.

A. A phylogenetic tree demonstrating that nonhuman primates are the closest related animals to humans, whereas mice are highly genetically distant. B. Many viruses which cause disease in humans also cause diseases in nonhuman primates (Old world, New World, or apes); alternatively, there are similar viruses which recapitulate the salient aspects of viral disease in humans. Thus, nonhuman primates provide a valuable window into mechanisms of viral diseases and in developing novel therapeutic interventions to treat or vaccine modalities to prevent viral diseases. Figure 1A is adapted from REF¹⁷⁷.