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We may soon be on the verge of getting a super snake antivenom. In new research, a team of scientists say they have created lab-made antibodies to combat venomous bites from different types of snakes. In early tests with mice, Uber-antivenom appeared to work as expected.
Snake antivenom is usually derived from antibodies from horses or other animals that produce a strong immune response to snake toxins. These donated antibodies can be highly effective in preventing serious injury and death from snakebites, but they come with serious limitations.
For example, the chemical structure of one species’ venom may differ significantly from that of another, so antibodies against one specific venom provide little protection against others. Manufacturers can attempt to deal with this by vaccinating animals with multiple toxins at once, but this method has drawbacks, such as requiring high doses of antivenom because only certain antibodies will have any effect. These antivenom cocktails also increase the risk of side effects such as serum sickness, which is an adverse immune response to foreign antibodies. antivenom industry There are other systemic issues overall, especially in parts of Africa where biting is a common threat.
These shortcomings mean snakebite remains A very real threat, killing more than 100,000 people worldwide each year and injuring another 400,000. But the authors of this new study, published They reported Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine that they have taken an important step toward developing a proven method of treating snakebites: a universal antivenom.
The study was led by scientists at California-based Scripps Research. The team focused on a class of toxins called 3FTxs, which are commonly used by venomous elapid snakes, a family of slippery reptiles that includes cobras, mambas and sea snakes. Although snake venoms are remarkably complex and vary from one another, even within the same class, the team managed to find parts of these venoms that were quite similar across different species.
Scientists produced a variety of 3FTx toxins in the laboratory and then screened them against a database of more than 50 billion synthetic antibodies, looking for antibodies that could potentially neutralize multiple toxins simultaneously. After a few rounds of selection, they finally identified an antibody that broadly neutralizes at least five different 3FTx variants, called 95Mat5. They then put the antibody to the test in real life, and found that it completely protected mice from dying from the toxins of the many-banded krait, Indian spitting cobra and black mamba, in some cases better than traditional antivenom; It also provided some protection from the venom of the king cobra.
“We were able to zoom in on a very small percentage of antibodies that were cross-reactive to all these different toxins,” said lead author Irene Khalek. statement From Scripps. ‘This was only possible because of the platform we developed to screen our antibody library against multiple toxins in parallel.’
As seen with the king cobra, the 95Mat5 antibody alone may not work against every elapid snake. And it will not protect against bites from viper snakes, the other major family of venomous snakes. But the team’s process for identifying broadly neutralizing antibodies, adapted from similar research on the HIV virus, could be used to find other promising antivenom candidates. Researchers are already working on developing three other antibodies, one for elapid snakes and two for viper snakes. They envision a world where these could soon be mixed together to create a 100% cure for snakebite.
“We think that a cocktail of these four antibodies could potentially serve as a universal antivenom against any medically relevant snake in the world,” Khalek said.
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