Growing up in a remote village nestled in the Guatemalan highlands, computational immune-engineer Jacob Glanville frequently heard of snakebite incidents in the area. With the nearest medical center being hours away, locals could not access life-saving medicines. As an adult, Glanville realized that the problem was widespread beyond his own village.
Snakebite envenoming affects almost two million people globally each year and kills almost 100,000 people. Conventionally-used antivenoms employ animal-derived antibodies which can trigger serious allergic reactions and may not efficiently target diverse snake venom toxins.
This motivated Glanville to start Centivax, a biotechnology company which, among other things, focuses on developing universal snakebite treatments.
“Antivenom had always fascinated me,” said Glanville. He wondered whether antibodies built up in somebody who had survived snakebites could neutralize some snake toxins. In his quest to identify such people, he serendipitously found an ideal donor.
Now, using antibodies from the serum of a man with a unique snakebite history, Glanville and his team have developed a potent antivenom against toxins from some of the world’s deadliest snakes. Their results, published in Cell, pave the way toward a universal antiserum that may offer protection against diverse snake venom toxins.
“The study is very well-executed and planned, and they have got some really nice antibodies,” said Kartik Sunagar, a venom researcher at the Indian Institute of Science, who was not involved in the study.
For their study, Glanville and his team contacted Timothy Friede, a truck mechanic, who had been undertaking an unusual side-project since 2000. As an amateur snake collector constantly at risk of envenomation, Friede, now a herpetologist at Centivax, started milking his snakes for their venom and repeatedly injecting himself with it, hoping to develop immunity.
A few months after Friede began his experiment, he suffered accidental back-to-back cobra bites—he spent four days in a coma. “That was a big mistake,” he admitted. After his near-death experience, Friede continued his experiments with a renewed purpose: He wanted to help other snakebite victims. Over the next 17 years, he endured the bites of his snakes, including taipans, mambas, and cobras over 200 times, and injected about additional 500 doses with a syringe. “[Snakebites] are very painful; like a bee sting times thousand,” said Friede.
By Sneha Khedkar
Article can be accessed on: The Scientist