Cats 'Glow in the Dark' Help Fight HIV / AIDS

Glow in The Dark Cat

A cat whose body was engineered to be a cat can be lit in the darkness or the cats 'Glow in the Dark'. Cats are engineered to produce proteins that help fight AIDS. 

Mayo Clinic team has managed to cats to produce proteins that help the body to fight the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), the virus that causes AIDS in cats. 

Researchers were able to do this by inserting the gene into monkey eggs fertilized with sperm cat before. Genetic engineering has the potential to protect cats from FIV infection. 

"FIV and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a disease that is very similar in the sense that they exhaust the immune cells themselves from fighting infection. Thus, the finding that inserting the protective genes, although in cats, is also a step forward for HIV research for humans, "say the researchers, as reported by the Huffingtonpost, Tuesday (09/13/2011). 

The research team also manipulate the genes of jellyfish into the egg cats so they can see whether the genetic engineering work. And in this case, the proof can be seen with the ability of cats to glow in the dark. 

Scientists also know that genetic protection in cats can be transmitted to the next generation, because the kittens that have been engineered was also able to produce proteins that protect against viral invasion. 

However, it remains to be seen whether the cat is actually capable of genetic engineering against FIV, despite such promising science. 

"We have not seen evidence in cats suffering from AIDS. We still have to conduct studies involving the infection of all cats. Protectors gene is expressed in lymphoid organs of cats, in which the AIDS virus spread and cell death most of the play," said study researcher Eric Poeschla, Molecular biologists and infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. 

This is not the first time engineered cats to glow in the dark. In 2008, Today reported that the Audubon Nature Institute scientists are able to engineer a cat to turn orange cat with green neon light in the darkness. 

The purpose of these experiments is to see whether they can successfully perform the implantation of a gene, because according Today, cats and humans have the same genetic makeup.

That's wonderful, Hope this observation can against HIV aids in the Future :)