Why do some animals, like sharks and crocodiles, have such powerful immune systems that they rarely get sick or develop cancer, and could we learn from them to improve human health?
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i work in a building with shark immunology research ongoing and heard a couple of talks from the lady who does the actual shark research.
Short answer is we don’t yet know why they’re resistant to cancer. Or at least the lady who works in my building doesn’t, but the aim of her research is to find it out.
A few things we know:
chemistry works slower when you’re cold, And sharks are adapted to living in cold waters. Therefore their immune systems have different loads and requirements. For example, I remember her saying that peak immune response after introducing a foreign chemical (antigen) was 2 months. For reference the Covid vaccine in humans has a response in the order of days.
They also have a slightly different immune system, with different antibody types. This was one of the reasons earlier scientists thought that shark immune systems were “undeveloped”, since they weren’t similar to the human immune system. What that means in term of the efficacy, is to my understanding still under research, but the antibodies might be easier to tune.
Once again, not a shark researcher, but work in the same facility as one
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