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Did you know that at least 15% of the world’s population is allergic to gatos? In fact, according to data from the magazine ‘Nature‘, sensitivity to these pets is usually the second most frequent allergy in any region only behind pollen or mites. Kittens can be very adorable, but they can also be allergic and even harmful, and can even cause asthma attacks. This is because all cats shed a protein called Fel d 1, which is present in saliva and sebaceous glands, and which causes most cat allergies. So what if you could make your cat hypoallergenic with biotechnology?
After years of clinical trials of immunotherapy in adults, scientists have focused on the cats themselves and have concluded that if the animals did not produce the protein, allergic reactions would be avoided. Vaccines were first designed to immunize them against their own allergens; later, the Purina Institute invented the formula to coat food with an ingredient derived from eggs that neutralized them. Both are insufficient methods to help the most sensitive allergic people. But what if you went even further and deleted the gene that encodes Fel d 1 from a cat’s DNA?
As early as the 2000s, the biotech company Allerca announced to have created the world’s first scientifically proven hypoallergenic cat. The prices per feline ranged between 3,600 and 26,000 euros and the waiting lists to buy one were up to a year. However, an investigation by the Australian media ‘ABC news’ in collaboration with the company Indoor Biotechnologies in 2013 denied that they were more hypoallergenic than others. All this served to show that the demand for allergen-free cats is immense, it’s just that no one had found the right formula.
Until this same biotech company, InBio, based in Virginia (United States), has found the key: designing genetically edited cats for allergy sufferers will be possible within the next five years. It is a gene therapy that removes the Fel d 1 protein from feline DNA through CRISPR editing technology. This ‘scissor’ makes it possible to make a genetic ‘cut-paste’ and has been used for more than nine years in practically all existing organisms. From the creation of plants that are more resistant to pests to therapies against genetic diseases (different types of cancer or sickle cell anemia). “There is now no molecular biology laboratory that, directly or indirectly, is not using this technique. It has spread universally because it is very precise, versatile, easy to use and affordable », he explains for ABC Lluís MontoliuCSIC microbiologist.
The hypoallergenic cat project is still in its early stages, and researchers need to make sure CRISPR works in cells before making the technique more sophisticated. Brackett and his colleagues at InBio also point out that their aim is to apply gene therapy to the glands of adult felines individually, instead of directly breeding hypoallergenic animals.
Limitations and ethical responsibility
Nicole F. Brackett, from Indoor Biotechnologies, has been in charge of using this powerful technology to eliminate the genes associated with the production of this protein and thus put an end to allergies. This research, published in ‘CRISPR Journal’, consisted of a comparison of genes between domestic and wild cats. The researchers concluded that this variation would not affect pets, since they are genes that “may not be functionally essential” for their survival. On the contrary, Montoliu believes that using CRISPR technology to modify animals that are allergenic is “ethically debatable” because, if it becomes a reality, it would not be “for the benefit of the animal at all, but for the people.” From the point of view of the CSIC researcher, it is not a priority application: “There are many other things to do, such as, for example, developing solutions for people who suffer from some incurable rare disease,” he points out.
Montoliu warns of the danger of not controlling genetic manipulation in animals, but even more so in humans: «Modifying genes from embryos, from people who have not yet been born […] it is not technically adequate or recommended; neither ethically justifiable”. The use of CRISPR tools in embryos can generate unforeseen mutations or the alteration of genes other than those that were intended to be activated. “This happens normally in laboratory mice, but with these animals it can be managed. With people, neither can nor should, “explains the researcher from the University of Alicante.
In addition to mice and cats, there are also other animals gene-edited with CRISPR technology thanks to advances in animal biotechnology: there are pigs designed not to develop diseases such as African swine fever and others that can be sex-biased so that they they are preferably born male or female as preferred. In fact, the latest advance, approved by the United States regulatory agency, has been to use this ‘genetic scissors’ so that cattle grow shorter fur and better tolerate heat, and can live in tropical areas. Who knows if, in a few years, CRISPR could be applied to other pets such as dogs or rabbits so that they also stop causing allergies to some humans.
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