Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have developed aimmunization strategy to combat feline immunodeficiency virus (VIF), very similar to that caused bypagein humans. For research, published in the journalNature Methods, doctors, virologists, veterinarians and experts in gene therapy have worked with transgenic cats to which they incorporated protective proteins.
Using a genetic technique known as gamete-directed lentiviral transgenesis (which has been used for the first time in a carnivorous mammal), the researchersinserted a gene from the macaques called TRIMCyp, which blocks FIV infection, along withgreen fluorescent protein GFP gene. The latter, obtained from jellyfish, causes cats to fluoresce green under ultraviolet rays, so that researchers can quickly check whether the gene for resistance to the immunodeficiency virus has been successfully transplanted. As a result of the experiment, several kittens with green fluorescence were born, all of them healthy, who also transmitted the genes that protect them from AIDS to their offspring.
Although the technique will not be applied directly to people with AIDS, it will help to developeffective new gene therapies to combat this disease, which each year kills millions of people die each year from AIDS. In addition, the study could helpkeep at36 species of wild catsthat live on our planet, all of them in danger of extinction.
