The results of a recent study may lead to the creation of new drugs against certain diseases.
Researchers have solved the mystery of why sharks’ immune systems are so effective at warding off disease. They argue that this could lead to the creation of new drugs, writes the Daily Mail.
It has been noted that over 400 million years of evolution, the shark’s immune system has become a sophisticated defense, more precise than humans, and capable of detecting almost any dangerous virus or life-threatening tumor.
This is believed to be one of the main reasons why some species, such as the great white shark, can live up to 70 years. In addition, sharks also have exceptional wound healing abilities, which means that injuries rarely result in death.
The results of a recent study could lead to new drugs to fight diseases like cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.
Sharks have 10 times less antibodies than humans. This allows them to penetrate deeper into small cracks on the surface of bacteria or cancer cells, increasing the chance that they will stick to and be destroyed by the cells’ immune system. invader
Moreover, tests have shown that shark antibodies are very stable. Scientists say they boiled them and immersed them in corrosive acid, but they survived.
“Sharks are among the oldest living things on the planet, so scientists wanted to test whether humans have the same disease-fighting tools. Soon, they discovered that sharks have small, simple antibodies with potentially huge benefits over big people.” is very complex and can only bind to one target,” said Dr. Caroline Barrell, chief executive officer of Elasmogen Ltd, a subsidiary of the University of Aberdeen that makes synthetic versions of shark antibodies for human medicine.
Notably, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Elasmogen discovered that small antibody-like proteins derived from the immune system of sharks can prevent coronaviruses from infecting humans.
A blogger accidentally captured a white shark nearby
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Source: korrespondent
