Towards an effective antidote against any bite? An American, who injected hundreds of doses of snake venom, has developed antibodies leaving such a remedy.
It has been 18 years since Tim Friede, an American mechanic by profession, regularly informs small doses of snake venom. To date, BFMTV reports on May 3, based on BBC information, Mr. Friede totals 700 bites, equivalent to 200 bites of different species of snakes.
Originally, the guinea pig, which regularly handles these animals, simply tried to strengthen its immunity. With light failures: at the start of his experience, two Coma bites leave him in a coma. Little by little, his immunity is well strengthened. To the point that his case began to interest the scientific body, which has come up against the first work on antivenines in a major problem: because each species has a different venom, it is impossible to develop an effective antidote against all bites.
-Antibodies common to several toxins
Tim Friede caught the attention of Doctor Jacob Glanville, Managing Director of the Centivax Biotechnology Company. The scientist seeks to establish whether the exposure to the venoms of the self-taught cobaye allowed him to develop antibodies with large neutralization, that is to say common to several toxins. “During the first call, I said: ‘It may be embarrassing, but I would really like to get my hands on a little of your blood’”reported Jacob Granville to the BBC.
Scientists therefore sought in Tim Friede’s blood such antibodies. They discovered two that could target two types of neurotoxins, and added a third substance to make the cocktail even more effective. Tested on mice, the mixture allowed rodents to survive dead doses of venom of 13 out of 19 species tested, and offered partial protection against the other six. The effectiveness of Tim Friede antibodies is “unrivaled”according to Doctor Glanville.
Researchers having worked on the study agree that this discovery will allow, in the future, the development of an antidote common to many species of snakes. Such a project could take more than 15 years but would be necessary: worldwide, nearly 140,000 people die every year from snake bites and more than 300,000 suffer permanent amputations or invalidities.
