Feline generous: Japan cat lovers give $2 million to kidney research

Cats may have nine lives, but their time on Earth is often cut short by kidney problems – so people in Japan who want their feline friends to live longer have donated nearly US$2 million to the search for a cure.

As the coronavirus pandemic hit the economy last year, scientists at the University of Tokyo lost their corporate funding for a study on preventing kidney disease in cats.

But thousands of Japanese cat lovers mobilized online to donate to the researchers after an article about their plight by news agency Jiji Press went viral.

"I lost my beloved cat to kidney disease last December ... I hope this research will progress and help many cats to live without this disease," one woman wrote in a message alongside her US$20 donation.

Another donor, who gave US$90, said: "I recently got a kitten. I make a donation in the hope that it will be in time for this cat."

Domesticated cats and their bigger cousins in the wild are highly prone to kidney problems because of a genetic inability to activate a key protein discovered by the Tokyo researchers.

The protein called AIM helps clean up dead cells and other waste in the body, preventing the kidneys from becoming clogged.

Immunology professor Toru Miyazaki and his team are working on ways to produce the protein in a stable quantity and quality.

They hope to develop a new remedy they say could double the current feline life expectancy of roughly 15 years.

"I hope that ultimately veterinarians will give (cats) jabs every year like vaccines," Miyazaki said.

"It would be good to give them one or two doses every year" of AIM, he said.