The blood of a man who survived over 200 poisonous snake bits can be used to create an extremely effective antitoxin. To get immunity, the breeder has injected toxins into his body several hundred times. In this way, he created a set of antibodies acting when it is cut by many species.
In the event of a bite by a venomous snake, it is necessary to quickly administer the serum – a toxin neutralizing substance with antibodies. Most antitoxins can only fight one toxin. Considering that snakes produce jads with different compositions, helping victims of bites can be difficult, for example, when a local hospital does not have a serum for a snake venom. In the “Cell” magazine, an antitoxin testing neutralizing a wide range of toxins appeared, which is based … human blood.
Dangerous experiment
Blood samples came from Tim Friede, a breeder and collector of venomous snakes from the United States. The man for 18 years conducted an experiment on building resistance to toxins by injecting diluted venom samples into his bloodstream. At that time, he carried out this procedure over 700 times, using toxins downloaded from many species, including KOBR, Taipans or Mamba.
Resistance has been tested many times in practice – his pupils bit him over 200 times. The most dangerous situation occurred when the breeder was attacked twice by cobers within an hour. “I lost consciousness, I almost died. I had sufficient resistance to one bite, but not for two. I completely looked at the matter” – he said.
Black mamba (dendroaspis polylepis) – photo illustrativeShutterstock
Wide range of protection
Friede documented his experiments on YouTube, where his films drew the attention of researchers. They analyzed the man's blood samples, identifying the most active antibodies and the mechanism of their formation. On their basis, a team of scientists developed antitoxin protecting mice from venom of 19 species from the treacherous family, on the list of the most dangerous snakes in the world. The animals survived the fatal doses of toxins of 13 species and had partial protection against the remaining six.
The developed antitoxin has its limitations – it is not suitable, among others for neutralizing snake venom from the Viper family. Scientists plan to conduct further research on snake breeder antibodies to gradually expand the protection range provided by the serum. Before this drug is available to people, clinical tests will be necessary.
Source of the main photo: Shutterstock