Scientists believe glow-in-the-dark cats can help treating HIV AIDS

With the help of genetic engineering, the Mayo Clinic scientists were able to create glow-in-the-dark kitty that has genes that code for a fluorescent jellyfish protein, which produces the green colour, as well as an antiviral restriction factor from a rhesus macaque.

The researchers have created three genetically engineered kittens that can glow green and pass this gene onto their offspring. They explained that cats are much better models for AIDS viruses than are mice and other animals.

The scientists believe that the newly genetically engineered cats can help treating HIV AIDS. The researchers have long wanted to genetically experiment with cats to better understand how to combat AIDS. The scientists insert genes into the genomes of these engineered animals to convert them into genetically modified animals.

In order to do that, they often use benign viruses as the delivery vehicles. Investigators commonly target the earliest possible stages in an animal’s development so the gene gets installed into all of its cells.

Speaking to the media, a molecular biologist and infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Eric Poeschla, said, “FIV causes AIDS with loss of infection-fighting T cells like HIV does in people, and cats get sick from virtually the same AIDS-defining opportunistic infections as humans who have untreated HIV.”

He added, “We haven’t shown cats that are AIDS-proof. We still have to do infection studies involving whole cats. That the protection gene is expressed in the cat lymphoid organs, where AIDS virus spread and cell death mostly play out, is encouraging to us, however.”

The ultimate goal of this line of research, though, is to figure out how to make humans resistant to HIV, the virus that causes human AIDS.

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Posted by Zeeshan Gohar on May 15 2012. Filed under Health, Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.