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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		New insight into feline heart disease may also help humans
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2016-04-06 00:00:00
	Description:		What do cats and humans have in common? Heart disease probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, but recent discoveries at the University of California, Davis have revealed how a genetic mutation can affect feline hearts. Researcher Mark Kittleson helped discover this mutation, which is linked to a type of heart disease seen in Maine coon and ragdoll cats as well as in humans. "So when you have a mutation in a gene, it produces an abnormal protein. That protein then is in the cell and gets incorporated into the area where it should be." The mutation affects the part of the heart cell that contracts known as the sarcomere. But since the protein is dysfunctional, its addition disrupts this function of the cell. "We just came out with paper showing that the protein does get incorporated into the sarcomere. So if you could block it from actually forming, you could then… hopefully cure the disease, maybe even reverse it. We are working…to look at how this mutation actually causes the disease in cats, and using that as a model for the disease in humans."
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