A litter of glow-in-the-dark kittens must be taken seriously, as they may just shed light on a potential AIDS cure.

A research at the Mayo Clinic led by Dr. Eric Poeschla genetically engineered kittens to make blood cells that are resistant to feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) the virus that causes feline AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).

The study is hoped to give scientists new insights in their long-standing battle against AIDS in both humans and cats. While humans cannot catch FIV and cats are safe from HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), scientists hope to gather enough observable data on cats' FIV to see if these findings could be somehow applied in further studies on HIV.

The HIV has already killed 30 million people worldwide, with 33 million currently infected, TIME magazine reported this week.

To allow a mother cat to give birth to glow-in-the-dark kittens, Poeschla and his colleagues used a rhesus monkey gene that bestows resistance to feline AIDS and a gene that allows certain jellyfish to emit an eerie green glow when exposed to ultraviolet light. Both genes were inserted into egg cells obtained from female cats that were being spayed. The eggs were fertilized and then transferred to a surrogate mother cat, which is the same procedure for in vitro fertilization in humans using donor eggs.

Both the monkey and the jellyfish genes were ferried into egg cells using a virus that does not cause disease. As the genes were engineered to be expressed together, the scientists could more easily see and study any cell in the resulting kittens in which the FIV-blocking gene was active, as those cells would glow. "The genes are encoded within the same gene transfer vector," says Poeschla. "When it integrates [into the cell], they are together in same little piece of DNA."

Three kittens, two males and one female, were born. "The kittens are completely normal - frisky, happy, healthy and interactive," says Poeschla, adding that the kittens show no reaction on their ability to glow unlike their mother.

"The world is suffering from two huge AIDS pandemics," says Dr. Poeschla. "Less well known is the one in cats."

FIV infects 1% to 3% of cats worldwide, mostly feral cats. The virus affects all species of cats, including lions and tigers. All but domestic cats are endangered species.

"This [research] can help feline health as much as it helps human health," Poeschla says.