Can Cows Heal Us?
A new study has found that some cow antibodies may help us in creating new medicines. According to newswise.com, by rearranging and mutating certain genes, "an animal’s immune system can generate a vast and diverse population of antibodies—which collectively can bind to just about any of the body’s foreign invaders." Antibodies, part of our immune system, protect us from infection. Researchers have found that cows make unusually long antibodies, and longer antibodies, for some reason, seem to cure some infections. A study done on patients with HIV discovered that these longer antibodies allowed them "to grab a crucial structure on the virus and thereby neutralize the infectivity of most HIV strains," newswise.com quotes Vaughn V. Smider, assistant professor of cell and molecular biology at TSRI and principal investigator for the study. If I can get put it into English -- and I may not have it exactly right, I must say right up front -- but I believe ...