New NPR! Cats that glow in the Dark會發光的貓

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Glowing Kittens Help In Fight Against AIDS

Heard on All Things Considered

September 17, 2011 - GUY RAZ, host: Here's a press release新聞稿 we received at the office this past week. The headline read: Mayo Clinic Teams Up with Glowing會發光的 Cats Against AIDS對抗愛滋. Now, as you can imagine, this got our attention. So we called Dr. Eric Poeschla. He's a microbiologist微生物學家 at the Mayo Clinic美國梅約診所 and the man behind the study to explain exactly how making cats glow in the dark could help in the fight against AIDS.

Dr. ERIC POESCHLA: That technique has been done now in many animals. This certainly isn't the first time. That ability to do that was discovered about 20 years ago, and it's tremendously useful in biological research生物研究.

RAZ: Okay. So there are two things going on here. One is you're trying to figure out if you can create cats that are resistant to feline AIDS製造出能夠對抗貓愛滋病毒的貓咪, but at the same time you're injecting this jellyfish gene注射水母基因使貓咪能發光 that causes them to glow.

POESCHLA: Correct.

RAZ: OK. So first of all, why do you want them to glow?

POESCHLA: It allows you to tell whether the gene of interest is in the cell without having to do an invasive test侵入性測試(注入水母基因後能讓研究人員在不使用侵入性測試的方式，去了解某些注入的基因是否已經進入細胞內).

RAZ: My understanding is that you successfully inserted genes from a monkey從猴子細胞中取出一種基因, genes that make a protein that blocks the feline HIV infection that becomes AIDS.這種由猴子細胞中所取出的基因，能製造出一種蛋白質，能夠阻隔貓愛滋的感染 You inserted that into cat eggs, and essentially what? Those kittens born from those eggs can resist抵抗 the infection?

POESCHLA: So those kittens born, we know they have the protein and they make the protein. They make it in the cells that are vulnerable to the virus這些被注射特殊猴子基因的貓咪，身體內最容易受到愛滋攻擊的細胞會製造一種蛋白質，; in other words, where the eggs' pathology病理報告 plays out. And we know that when we draw the blood from the animals, their cells resist, relatively speaking, FIV replication抽血後能得知這些貓咪體內的細胞能夠阻止貓愛滋細胞的複製.

We don't know yet whether the animals are protected, and that's the important main step to figure out. And that was the point of the whole project, really, to know what the power of these genes are at the whole animal level透過動物體內的實驗去了解這些基因防禦愛滋的能力到底如何, and if they have the power to protect then they could perhaps be used in the future in human gene therapy日後可以用在人類的基因治療上, not by transgenesis動物或植物的基因轉殖, which obviously would never be done in a person, but by introducing them into the stem cells in the body that produce the white blood cells白血球 that are vulnerable to HIV. 以細胞治療的方式，透過植入身體幹細胞的方式，去觀察受到愛滋病毒破壞的白血球會不會出現甚麼變化

So that's the hope in the future. There's no human application directly now or clinical trial臨床測試now of course.

RAZ: Obviously, the AIDS side to this is the most important part of it, but you must have been impressed when you saw the cat glowing in the dark in the lab.

POESCHLA: Well, we were impressed. But the really interesting scientific question is the gene that went in, besides the jellyfish protein, can that protect the animal? Can that make the species resistant to FIV and AIDS? And we don't know that yet.

RAZ: And those cats are still alive?

POESCHLA: Those cats are still alive. They're healthy and happy, and they're playful. And you'd never know they're different from a regular cat unless you shine the light on them.

RAZ: So they still glow.

POESCHLA: They still glow.

RAZ: It doesn't wear off.

POESCHLA: It doesn't wear out. But I'll make the point that they don't just glow on their own. So if you were to let the cat loose in a dark room and just look, you won't see anything.

RAZ: You've got to shine the blue light on it.

POESCHLA: That's right.

RAZ: How can I get one?

POESCHLA: Well, I'm glad you asked that because you can't. And many people, well-meaning people好心人/出發點是善意的人, have emailed or written to see if animals are available, and the answer, of course, is no. There's no opportunity to obtain a cat. No animals will be sold or given out. They won't be released to breed in the outdoors. This is about doing research to improve both feline and human health.

And I'll also say - there's another question that we should answer because we get a lot of questions - there's no commercial aspects to this發光的貓咪不會被拿來販賣/絕無商業用途. Animals aren't sold to support the research. And to the contrary, we're dependent on receiving national institutes that help grant funding to go forward with it.

RAZ: Well, as a cat lover, I'm glad that they are both fighting AIDS and glowing in the dark, I must admit. Dr. Eric Poeschla is a molecular biologist分子生物學家 and infectious disease specialist傳染病專家 at the Mayo Clinic. You can read more about his AIDS-fighting glowing cats in the latest issue最新一期的 of the journal Nature Methods. And you can also see photos of the cats at our website, npr.og. Dr. Poeschla, thank you so much.

POESCHLA: Thank you.