Despite their bad reputation, sharks could save our lives. A team of scientists at La Trobe University in Australia are pioneering its antibodies to improve human treatments for malaria, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis .
As explained by biologists Mick Foley and Stewart Nuttall at the BIO-2008 convention held in California, the antibodies of sharks are smaller, chemically more robust and biologically more stable than those of other animals. This makes them ideal candidates to be given orally rather than injected, since they survive the acidic conditions of the digestive system without difficulty. In addition, unlike other techniques that are being tested in the world that require the shark to be vaccinated first, the new method does not require prior immunization , which avoids a direct confrontation with the animal. "Everything is done in the lab; it's faster, more efficient … and safer," admits Foley.
On the other hand, the researcher has verified that shark antibodies have a kind of elongated hook that naturally adheres to a protein of the malaria parasite , preventing it from invading blood cells. Now the challenge is to make small genetic modifications to the antibodies so that they adhere to cancer cells or certain inflammatory proteins with equal efficiency.
