Scientists expect to produce a universal antidote to the extraordinary blood of a man exposed to the poison of different species of snakes for decades.
Scientists say that the blood of an American man who deliberately injected a snake poison for about two decades has produced an “unparalleled” anti -fase serum.
They demonstrated in the animal tests that antibodies found in the blood of Tim Friede protected against mortal doses of poison from a vast series of species.
The current therapies require the identification of which type of poisonous snake was responsible for the bite.
Friede’s mission is already 18 years old and can be an important step to find a universal antidote against all snake bites. They kill up to 140,000 people per year and leave triple victims with permanent amputations or disabilities.
Overall, Friede has undergone more than 200 bites and 700 poison injections prepared alone with some of the most fatal snakes in the world, such as various species of Mambas, Najas, Taipans and Kraits.
Documes his explorations on YouTube. Initially, its intention was to form immunity to protect itself when it comes to snakes.
But the former truck mechanic says that at the beginning “he ruined everything”, when two subsequent naja morsels left him in a coma.
“I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to lose my finger. I didn’t want to lose my job,” he told the BBC.
Friede’s motivation was to develop better therapies for the rest of the world.
“This was simply a lifestyle and I continued to force, force and force as much as possible, by the people at 13,000 kilometers from me, who die for snake bites,” he explained.
“I would like to get my hands in a little blood”
The anti-fase serum is currently produced by injecting small doses of snake poison into animals such as horses. Its immune system fights antibodies that produce poison, which are collected for use on therapy.
But poison and antidote should be totally coinciding, since the toxins of a poisonous bite vary from one species to another.
There are also great variations within the same species. The antidote made with Indian snakes, for example, is less effective against the same species in Sri Lanka.
A team of researchers started studying a sort of immune defense known as large neutralization antibodies. Instead of looking for a part of a toxin that makes it unique, they look for the common parts of an entire class of toxins.
It was then that the CEO of Biotechnological Society Centivax, Jacob Glanville, met Tim Friede.
“I immediately thought:” If someone has developed these large neutralization antibodies, it will be him. “So I looked for him,” he says.
“In the first call, I said: ‘It may seem strange, but I would like to get my hands on a little blood.”
Friede agreed. And the work received ethical approval, since the study would have removed only the blood without providing it with more poison.
The research focused on the elapids – one of the two families of poisonous snakes, which includes choir, Mambas, Najas, Taipans and Kraits.
Elapid Poison mainly uses neurotoxins, who paralyze their victims. The poison is fatal when paralyzing the muscles necessary for breathing.
The researchers chose 19 elapids identified by the World Health Organization as the most fatal snakes on the planet. They then started studying Friede’s blood to control their protection defenses.
The work was detailed in the cell charger and identified two large neutralization antibodies that could face two classes of neurotoxin.
The researchers added these antibodies to a third -class drug to create an anti -Fase cocktail.
In the experiments on mice, the cocktail made the animals survive the mortal doses of 13 of the 19 species of poisonous snakes – and the animals still had a partial protection against the other six.
It is an area of ​​”incomparable” protection, according to Gianville. “It probably covers an entire group of elapids to which there is currently no antidote.”
The team is trying to further refine the antibodies and verify that the addition of a fourth component can generate full protection against the height of the elapids.
The other class of snakes – the vipers – depends more on hemotoxins, which attack the blood, not on neurotoxins.
Overall, there are about a dozen great toxin classes in snake poisons. They also include citotoxins, which directly kill the cells.
“I think that in the next 10 or 15 years we will have something effective against each of these toxins classes,” says Peter Kwong, one of Columbia University researchers in the United States.
In the meantime, the hunt continues in Tim Friede’s blood samples.
“Tim’s antibodies are truly extraordinary,” says Kwong. “He taught his immune system to achieve this very large recognition.”
The great hope is to have a single serum capable of fighting all poisons, or an injection for elapids and another for vipers.
Professor Nick Casewell is the head of the Center for Research and Interventions on snakes of snakes at the Liverpool Tropical Medicine School in the United Kingdom. He says that the protection of protection reported by the study “is certainly innovative” and provides “strong evidence” that it is a practicable technique.
For him, “there is no doubt that this work advances the field in a stimulating direction”.
But the teacher warns that there is “a lot of work to do” and that the antidote has yet to undergo extensive tests until they can be applied to people.
But for Friede, coming to this phase makes him feel good.
“I’m doing something good for humanity and this was very important for me. I am proud of it. It’s fantastic.”
Source: Terra
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