Shark DNA may hold secret to helping to cure cancer

Experts believe that DNA from great white sharks could hold the secret to the cure for cancer and other age-related diseases.

The first map of great white sharks’ DNA has shown mutations which protect the animals against a number of diseases, including cancer. Scientists are hopeful that more research could lead to applying the findings to treating age-related illnesses in humans.

Humans are vulnerable to cancer and other illnesses related to age because of unstable genes. As sharks have been around for so long, they have evolved so that their DNA is able to repair itself and has a higher tolerance to damage.

Dr Mahmood Shivji, study co-leader, said “Genome instability is a very important issue in many serious human diseases.

“Now that we find that nature has developed clever strategies to maintain the stability of genomes in these large-bodied, long-lived sharks.

“There’s still tonnes to be learned from these evolutionary marvels, including information that will potentially be useful to fight cancer and age-related diseases, and improve wound-healing treatments in humans, as we uncover how these animals do it.”

The DNA from sharks is one and a half times bigger than human DNA, which means that there are things coded into them that humans are unable to do.

It is also believed that wound-healing and blood-clotting could be helped due to a shark’s ability to quickly recover from serious injuries.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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