Man survives 856 snake bites to help create world’s ‘most powerful’ antivenom

When it comes to treating snakebites and other venomous stings, antivenoms are a total game-changer. It can literally be the difference between life and death, working to neutralise the venom and prevent serious damage. The main challenge is access to the antivenom, especially in those countries where the venomous critters are common.

 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over a lakh people die each year because of snake bites, most of which occur in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

 

In a major breakthrough, researchers have created an antivenom, which is considered ‘the most broadly effective to date’, using blood donated by a person who developed a ‘hyper immunity’ to snake venom through snake bites and self-immunisations.

 

Timothy Friede has exposed himself to 856 self-immunisations, over a period of 18 years, including snake bites and doses of venoms of 16 lethal snake species, enough to ‘kill a horse’. 

 

Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, Inc., a US-based vaccine developer, said that Friede’s body had created antibodies that were effective in countering a broad range of snake toxins and could give rise to a broad-spectrum or universal antivenom. 

 

The research, published in Cell journal, revealed that the newly developed antivenom could protect mice against the bites of deadly snakes including black mamba, king cobra, and tiger snakes. 

 

Being a lover of reptiles, Friede has kept dozens of snakes at his home in Wisconsin, US. Friede told Associated Press that curiosity to protect himself from snake bites led him to inject himself with small doses of snake venom, building a tolerance level for himself, and later letting the snakes bite him.   

 

"At first, it was very scary. But the more you do it, the better you get at it, the more calm you become with it," said Friede.

 

The researchers separated the desired antibodies from Friede’s blood in order to develop the antivenom. Later, the antibodies were tested in mice, which were infected with the venom of snakes from the WHO’s deadliest categories 1 and 2 -- including about half of all the venomous species, such as coral snakes, mambas, cobras, taipans, and kraits.

 

The antibodies reacted with the toxins from these snakes to produce components that could render venom ineffective. Thus, the researchers were able to make a ‘cocktail’ comprising a minimum but sufficient number of components to render all the venoms ineffective.

 

However, the research is still in the early stages as the antivenom was only tested in mice and researchers are years away from human trials.

 

Even as the team's snakebite treatment shows promise against the group of snakes that include mambas and cobras, it's not effective against vipers, which include snakes like rattlers. 

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