Camels And Promises of Revolutionary Drugs

[Abu-Salman]

It seems that these miraculous animals not only yield naturally Vitamin C-enriched milk (so vital for Nomads with almost no access to fruits & vegetables) but they are also fascinating potential drugs factories, albeit relevant studies are limited and under-funded.

 

For instance it has been said that its milk could boost immune defence, help mitigate the modern scourge of diabete ect, but its antibodies could also revolution drugs engineering if the latest news are confirmed.

 

Antibodies-based drugs were extremely promising for diseases ranging from infections to cancers, but in theory only, at least until now it seems:

 

 

The camel factor: Nanobody revolution

03 October 2007

 

Henry Nicholls

New Scientist, Magazine issue 2624

 

 

IT IS not a problem university lecturers face all that often. In the 1980s, Raymond Hamers was confronted by a couple of bold undergraduates complaining that the practical experiments for their course were boring and predictable. Could he find them something more original to investigate?

 

Hamers, an immunologist then at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) in Belgium, remembered that he had half a litre of camel blood sitting in a freezer. Although it was earmarked for research into sleeping sickness, he figured he could spare a little for the students. "Why don't we see if we can purify camel antibodies?" he asked them.

 

The results flummoxed everyone. "We couldn't believe it," Hamers says. The pattern of antibodies extracted from the blood suggested that, in addition to the standard type found in all vertebrates, the camel produced an entirely novel, simpler variety.

 

What started out as a student project soon ...