• Question: Are sharks really immune to every known disease? And if so, could they be used to cure human diseases?

    Asked by ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) to Andy, Dwaine, Natt, Priya, Tatiana on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Natt Day

      Natt Day answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Hi,

      I actually had never heard that before, so have gone away and done a bit of reading and it turns out that it’s a myth… Sharks are not immune to all diseases. However it is thought that Sharks, despite how basic their immune systems are, are quite good at fighting diseases which is due to a chemical they have called squalamine

      Scientists are researching squalamine at the moment to see if it could be an antiviral drug for humans. You can read more about it here: http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/viruses101/compound_found_in_sharks_has

      Natt

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