Universal antidote – thanks to one hyperimmune for snake poison
The video Is only 2.5 minutes long. During that time, 57-year-old Tim Friede picks up a black mamba, whose poison normally kills a man within an hour, from a box. Then he lets the snake bite him in his left arm. Immediately then, he lets out a Taipan from another box and lets it bite him in his right arm, after which he thanks for himself and leaves the room.
It turns out that Tim Friede has in a very systematic way built up an immunity to 16 different types of poison worms. This has been injected 650 times with snake poison for 18 years and let itself be bitten more than 200 times, writes the New York Times.
Now researchers have At the vaccine company Centivax analyzed Tim Friede’s blood and started the development of an antidote with the ability to protect against several different types of snake to and the same time. According to the researchers, who reports their results in the magazine Cellhas the antidote potential to protect against 19 of the deadliest snakes in the world, including black mamba, royal skobra and tigerorms.
« The donor has immunized himself with ever higher doses from very deadly snakes that could normally kill a horse, » says Jacob Glanville, CEO of the company and first author of the current study, in a comment.
When the researchers analyzed Tim Friede’s blood, the antibodies that were effective against several different types of nerve poisons discovered at one and the same time. The researchers then tested the antibodies in mice that were subjected to a panel of poisons from 19 different species within the family of Giftsnokar (Elapidae). It was everything from coral storms, mammos and taipans to cobras and poisonous kraits, writes today’s medicine.
The antidote was based on two antibodies from Tim Friede, as well as an inhibitory molecule, Vaespladib, which is known for its ability to inhibit poison. In this way, the mice received adequate protection against the poison from 13 of the snakes as well as some protection against the remaining six species. The researchers are now planning to test their antidote on dogs in Australia that were taken to veterinary clinics due to snake bites.
Between 81,000 and 138,000 people die each year due to snake bites. Far more disabled for life, mainly because of the amputations that such bites can result in.
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