An American man injected himself with snake venom 856 times and helped create a serum for snake bites from 13 species of snakes
American scientists have obtained neutralizing snake venom antibodies from the blood of a man who injected himself with snake venom for 18 years and used them to create a three-component serum to help with the bites of 13 species of aspid snakes. In the future, they plan to refine the serum to broaden its spectrum of action. The work was published in Cell.
More than 100,000 people die from snake venom poisoning every year. Snake bites are treated with serum, which is derived from immunized animals. Each serum works against one or more related snake species, but sometimes it is difficult to determine which snake has bitten a person and choose the right drug.
It is also difficult to create a universal antidote: each snake produces from 5 to 70 protein toxins, so even if you find a neutralizing agent for each of these toxins, it is impossible to combine them all in one drug in practice - the total dose of these agents would exceed the permissible safety parameters. In addition, sera obtained by immunizing animals often cause side effects in humans.
In an attempt to solve these problems, scientists from the U.S. National Institute of Health, led by Peter Kwong (Peter D. Kwong) was interested in an unusual case of chronic exposure to snake venom: an American for 18 years injected himself with venom from different snakes and let them bite themselves. In total, the venom got into his body 856 times. Scientists examined his blood and isolated from it antibodies against the venom of 19 species of aspid snakes, including various species of cobras, mambas, taipans and krait snakes. Each type of antibody was injected into the mice and then injected with venom from each of the 19 snakes. This allowed the researchers to understand which antibodies were more likely to neutralize components of the venom, and then put together a cocktail of them with a minimal number of components but in sufficient quantities to neutralize them.
The final serum contained two types of antibodies and varespladib, a toxin inhibitor. The first antibody LNX-D09 neutralized the venom of six snake species, varespladib added protection against the venom of three more species, and the second antibody SNX-B03 extended the cocktail's effect on 13 of the 19 snake species. At the same time the venom of the remaining six species of snakes cocktail neutralized partially. These results were obtained after a series of experiments on mice: the animals were first injected with snake venom, and then three-component serum.
In the future, the scientists will continue their work and hope to create a universal cocktail from snake bites or to make two serums - one from aspid snake bites and the other from viper snake bites. In addition, they want to conduct research with veterinary clinics in Australia where dogs who have suffered snake bites are brought.
British researchers reported an increase in the number of attacks of exotic snakes on residents of the country. The most serious consequences were caused by attacks of vipers (nine severe poisonings) and aspids (five severe poisonings and one death).