(WHDH)– Researchers say there is new data that suggests sharks could take the bite out of COVID-19.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin are studying how antibodies from sharks can potentially fight the coronavirus.
“Shark antibodies are unique as in they are small they are a fraction of the size of a human’s,” said Professor Aaron Lebeau.
Lebeau said the idea is to inject humans with the antibodies and that the human body would recognize them as their own.
“This means they can penetrate the COVID-19 spike protein into different areas that human antibodies cannot access” he explained.
Lebeau’s team is testing the antibodies from four nurse sharks at their lab. They say they are the best species to study.
“We like nurse sharks because they are easy to handle they are very friendly,” said Lebeau “As we like to say sharks have been around for 500 million years on Earth. They’ve survived mass extinction events — so obviously they have a good thing going as far as their ability to survive goes.”
Doctor Lebeau said he hopes this research will be used to fight future pandemics.
“There’s definitely philanthropic support and a lot of excitement about it you know it’s great technology and it comes from sharks everybody loves sharks they find them fascinating if not scary,” he said.
It will be anywhere from two to five years before researchers can test the shark antibody treatment on humans.
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