“Unrivaled” snake makes the man bitten 200 times

The blood of an American man who deliberately injected himself with snake venom for almost two decades has led to an unprecedented anti -name, say scientists.

Antibodies found in Tim Friede were shown to protect against fatal doses against a wide range of species in animal tests.

Current therapies must correspond to the specific species of poisonous snake anyone who has been bitten.

But Mr. Friede’s 18 -year mission could be an important step to find an universal antifamn Name against all snake bites – which kill up to 140,000 people a year and leave more amputations or confronted with permanent disability.

In total, Mr. Friede endured more than 200 bites and more than 700 venom injections which he prepared from some of the deadliest snakes in the world, including several species of Mambas, Cobras, Taipans and Kraits.

He first wanted to build his immunity to protect himself during the management of snakes, documenting his exploits on Youtube.

But the former truck mechanic said that he had “completely fucked up” very early when two Cobra bites in rapid succession left him in a coma.

“I didn't want to die. I didn't want to lose a finger. I didn't want to run out of work,” he told the BBC.

Mr. Friede's motivation was to develop better therapies for the rest of the world, explaining: “It became a lifestyle and I continued to push and push and push as loudly as I could push – for people who are 8,000 miles from me who die of snake bite”.

Antivenom is currently made by injecting small doses of snake venom into animals, such as horses. Their immune system fights venom by producing antibodies and these are harvested to be used as therapy.

But Venom and Antivenom must be closely twinned because toxins in a poisonous bite vary from one species to another.

There is even a great variety within the same species – the anti -ending based on snakes in India is less effective Against the same species in Sri Lanka.

A team of researchers began to seek a type of immune defense called neutralization of neutralizing antibodies. Instead of targeting the part of a toxin that makes it unique, they target the parts common to the entire classes of toxin.

It was at this time that Dr. Jacob Glanville, managing director of the Biotechnology Society Centalix, came across Tim Friede.

“Immediately, I said to myself” if someone in the world has developed these largely neutralizing antibodies, it will be him “and so I stretched my hand,” he said.

“The first call, I was like” it could be embarrassing, but I would like to get my hands on a part of your blood “.”

Mr. Friede accepted and the work was approved ethical because the study would not take blood, rather than giving it more venom.

Research focused on Elapids – one of the two families of poisonous snakes – such as coral snakes, mambas, cobras, taipans and kraits.

Elapids mainly use neurotoxins in their venom, which paralyzes their victim and is fatal when he stops the muscles necessary to breathe.

The researchers chose 19 Elapids identified by the World Health Organization as among the deadliest snakes on the planet. They then started to travel through Mr. Friede's blood for protective defenses.

Their work, Detailed in the newspaper cellidentified two largely neutralizing antibodies which could target two classes of neurotoxin. They added a drug that targets a third party to make their antivenom cocktail.

In experiences on mice, the cocktail meant that animals have survived the fatal doses of 13 of the 19 species of poisonous snake. They had partial protection against the other six.

It is an “unprecedented” protective width, according to Dr. Glanville, who said that he “probably covers a bunch of elapids for which there is no current antifier”.

The team tries to further refine antibodies and see if the addition of a fourth component could cause total protection against the Elapid snake venom.

The other snake class – Vipers – rely more on hemotoxins, who attack blood, rather than neurotoxins. In total, there are about a dozen large classes of toxins in snake venom, which also includes cytotoxins that directly kill the cells.

“I think that in the next 10 or 15 years, we will have something efficient against each of these toxin classes,” said Professor Peter Kwong, one of the researchers of Columbia University.

And hunting continues inside the blood samples of Mr. Friede.

“TIM antibodies are really very extraordinary – he has taught his immune system to obtain this very, very wide recognition,” said Professor Kwong.

The ultimate hope is to have either a single antiform who can do anything, or an injection for Elapids and one for vipers.

Professor Nick Casewell, who is the chief of the research center and interventions on snake bites at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said that the extent of the reported protection was “certainly new” and provided “a solid evidence” that it was an achievable approach.

“There is no doubt that this work advances the field in an exciting direction.”

But he warned that there was “a lot of work to do” and that the Antifomnnom still needed in -depth tests before it could be used in people.

But for Mr. Friede, reaching this stage “makes me feel good”.

“I do something good for humanity and it was very important to me. I'm proud of it. It's pretty cool.”