BIO 2008: Sharks give malaria the finger

A team of La Trobe University and CSIRO scientists has developed a shark antibody library that should prove a bit safer for shark-handling scientists.

The team, led by Association Professor Mick Foley of La Trobe and CSIRO's Dr Stewart Nuttall, have been working on shark antibodies for a number of years and have now developed an antibody library that should allow scientists to keep their distance from the sharks, and vice versa.

The team has set up a biotech company called AdAlta to commercialise the library and showcased their technology at the Innovation Corridor, sponsored by the Victorian Government, at the BIO 2008 convention in San Diego.

Foley and Nuttall, amongst others, have been working on shark antibodies since it was discovered that they are highly effective at killing the malaria parasite in vitro. In 2004, the duo discovered that a shark antibody has a long, finger-like loop that projects from the surface and binds into a cavity on the target protein.

The antibody disrupts the normal signaling chain of command and inhibits malaria protein from invading red blood cells.

Other groups are working on shark antibody technology but this group is the first to develop a library based on modified shark antibodies.

"[They] have tapped the immune system of sharks to create a new process to extract genes from shark blood," Victorian Premier John Brumby said.

"The shark genes are modified by adding proteins, causing random mutations which mimic the way the body's immune system works. These mutations create antibodies that can be stored in a test tube and further modified to target specific diseases.

"What this process will enable is a kind of antibody library which will allow scientists to fast-track breakthroughs in diseases that attack immune systems. The process is much safer, and much more shark-friendly."

Brumby said the modified shark antibodies are small molecules and in future may be able to be administered orally, rather than intravenously, as the small molecules will be robust enough to survive in the gut.