Modified Monkey Promises Medical Advances for Humans.(Brief Article)

2001 JAN 24 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A baby monkey carrying an extra bit of DNA may suggest a way to speed new treatments for a host of disabling human conditions, from diabetes and breast cancer to Parkinson's and HIV.

Named ANDi, backwards for "inserted DNA," the active, healthy rhesus monkey received an extra gene while he was still an unfertilized egg, making him the world's first genetically modified non-human primate. Born on October 2, 2000, "ANDi is robust and plays normally with his two roommates," reported researcher Gerald Schatten of the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon, in the January 12, 2001, issue of Science.

ANDi's modified DNA consists only of a simple marker gene, designed to be easily identified within his genetic blueprint. But, the same modification method should lead to other laboratory animals carrying genes associated with specific medical conditions, Schatten said.

"We could just as easily introduce, for example, an Alzheimer's gene, to accelerate the development of a vaccine for that disease," said Schatten, who in 2000 reported the first monkey successfully cloned by embryo splitting (Science, January 14, 2000). "In this way, we hope to bridge the scientific gap between transgenic mice and humans. We could also get better answers from fewer animals, while accelerating the discovery of cures through molecular medicine."

The latest experiment, by lead author Anthony W.S. Chan, Schatten, and their colleagues, was no easy task: some 224 eggs were modified and then fertilized to produce 40 embryos and five pregnancies, which resulted in three live births.

To demonstrate their genetic modification method, the Oregon team - including K.Y. Chong, C. Martinovich, and C. Simerly - added a marker gene directly to a mother monkey's egg, or oocyte. The additional gene was carried into the egg by a non-infectious or "pseudotyped" viral carrier system called a vector, often used in human gene therapy investigations.

Because viral vectors are programmed to bind with cell surfaces, even when they're neutralized, the imposter virus containing the new bit of DNA quickly latched onto the ...