Man who injected himself with snake poison for 18 years helps to create serum

Immunologist Jacob Glanville came across reports in 2017 on a man who had injected hundreds of times with the poison of some of the most deadly snakes in the world including Naja, Mamba and rattlesnake – And allowed to be bitten.

“The news was a little sensational.” Crazy man is bitten by snakes, “said Glanville. “But when I looked, I realized that there was a day gross there.”

Gianville’s jewelry was TIM Friede a self -taught specialist in California -based snakes that has exposed itself to snake poison over almost 18 years, effectively gaining immunity to various neurotoxins.

“We had this conversation. And I said, I know it’s strange, but I’m very interested in examining some of your blood,” Gianville recalled. “And he replied,” Finally, I was waiting for this call. “

The pair agreed to work together, and Friede donated a sample of 40 milliliters of blood to Glanville and his colleagues. Eight years later, Glanville and Peter Kwong, Professor Richard J. Stock of Medical Sciences at the Columbia University Faculty of Doctors and Vagotes, published details of an anti -phase serum that can protect against 19 species of poisonous snakes – at least in mice – based on Friede’s blood antibodies and a poison blonder.

“Tim, as far as I know, has a history without parallels. There were different species very diverse from all continents that have snakes, and … He has alternated between poison over 17 years and nine months, maintaining meticulous records all the time,” said Gianville.

“However, we strongly discourage anyone trying to do what Tim did,” Gladille added. “Cobra poison is dangerous . ”

Friede has stopped immunizing himself with snake poison in 2018 after some critical situations, and is now employed at Gianville’s Centivax Biotechnology company, where Gianville is CEO and president. The survey was published Friday in the scientific journal Cell. THE CNN He contacted Friede, but he did not respond to the interview request.

What to do in case of snake bite

If you are unlucky to be bitten by a poisonous snake, your best hope is an anti -phase serum, which has mostly produced the same way since the Victorian era. Traditionally, the process involves extracting snake poison manually and injecting it into horses or other animals into small doses to cause an immune response. The blood of the animal is collected and purified to obtain antibodies that act against the poison.

Producing antivenene in this way can be complicated, not to mention dangerous. The process is prone to errors and laborious, and the finished serum can result in serious side effects. Experts have long asked for better ways to treat snake bites, which kill about 200 people a day, especially in the developing world, and leave 400,000 people a year with disabilities. The World Health Organization added the snake bite to its list of neglected tropical diseases in 2017.

Gianville, who grew up in Rural Guatemala, said he was always aware of health problems caused by snake bites and immediately recognized that Friede’s experience had a unique opportunity. Exposing the poison of snakes for almost two decades through injections and allowing to be bitten, Friede had generated antibodies that were effective against several snake neurotoxins at the same time.

“Revolutionary” potential

The researchers isolated Friede’s blood antibodies that react with neurotoxins found in the 19 species of snake tested in the study, which included coral snakes, mambas, najas, taipans, kraits and others.

These antibodies were then tested one by one in mice poisoned by each of the 19 species, allowing scientists to systematically understand the minimum number of components that would neutralize all poisons.

The drug cocktail created by the team included three components: two isolated Friede antibodies and the small varespladib molecule drug, which inhibits an enzyme present in 95% of all snake bites. The drug is currently in clinical tests in humans as independent treatment.

The first antibody, known as LNX-D09, protected mice from a lethal dose of complete poison of six species of snake. The addition of Varespladib ensured protection against three additional species. Finally, the researchers added a second isolated antibody of Friede’s blood called SNX-B03, which extended the protection to 19 species. The antivenene offered 100% protection for mice against the poison of 13 species and partial protection (20% to 40%) for the remaining six, the researchers observed in the study.

Steven Hall, a pharmacologist specializing in snake bites at the University of Lancaster in the United Kingdom, called it “a very intelligent and creative way” to develop an antivenene. Hall did not participate in the research. And while the cocktail has not been tested on humans, if approved for clinical use, Hall said that the human origin of antibodies would probably mean less side effects than antivene in the traditional way using horses or other animals, which can often result in allergic reactions.

“It’s impressive because it is done with one or two antibodies, plus a small molecule medicine, and this increases the number of species, versus a regular antidote. And I think it does a good job to highlight the potential usefulness to combine a small molecule with an antibody,” Hall added.

“If you get to the clinic, get to people in the long run, it would be revolutionary. This would really change the field in terms of snake bites,” he said.

Kwong from Columbia said the published research focused on a class of snakes known as elapids. It did not include viperids, the other large group of poisonous snakes that includes rattlesnakes,-scale vipers and additional species. However, the team is investigating if additional antibodies identified in Friede’s blood or other agents can offer protection against this family of Viperid snakes.

“The contemplated final product would be a single pan-antivene cocktail or potentially we would do two: one for the elapids and one for Viperids, because some areas of the world have only one or the other,” Kwong said.

The team also wants to start field research in Australia, where there are only elapid snakes, allowing veterinarians to use the antivene in dogs bitten by snakes.

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This content was originally published in a man who injected himself with snake poison for 18 years helps to create serum on the CNN Brazil website.

Source: CNN Brasil