Entering the third year of the pandemic, scientists are looking everywhere for preventative measures in many strange places, including inside the immune systems of nurse sharks.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison have found proteins present in shark’s blood could potentially help prevent humans from being infected by the virus or any of its variants, current or future.
Dr. Aaron LeBeau, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology and author of this study, says that these small antibody-like proteins in sharks blood called VNARs can prevent COVID-19 and its variants from infecting human cells, according to his study published December 16.
The VNARs proteins were tested on a type of coronavirus found in bats but could infect humans called WIV1-CoV, which was successfully neutralized with the shark VNARs. SARS-CoV-1, the same virus which caused the SARS outbreak in 2003, was also neutralized by the shark proteins.
What makes these proteins so unique is their ability to form geometries which “allows them to recognize structures in proteins that our human antibodies cannot,” says LeBeau. According to LeBeau, the discovery of the VNARS and their effectiveness against treating viruses related to COVID-19 could be “the next big thing.”
LeBeau and his team worked with Elasmogen, a Scottish biomedical company, as well as scientists from the University of Minnesota. In a statement released to the public, Elasmogen CEO Caroline BArelle said “What is exciting is that these new potential drug molecules against SARS-CoV-2 differ in their mechanism of action compared to other biologics and antibodies targeting this virus.”
This discovery comes as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly throughout the globe and creates record high case counts across the world. Researchers hope that with the help of these proteins, they could further strengthen people’s immunity against COVID-19, its variants, and even future strains of the virus.
Want more about sea life? Check out this article on the behaviors of False Killer Whales, and why they have people worried.
