Good news! Amazing stuff! I blogged here in February about an earlier, universal antivenom!
So now we have to broadly effective universal antivenoms against snake bites, and both came out in 2025!
The hero is Tim Friede [Friede is German for peace]!
"By using antibodies from a human donor [Time Friede] with a self-induced hyper-immunity to snake venom, scientists have developed the most broadly effective antivenom to date, which is protective against the likes of the black mamba, king cobra, and tiger snakes in mouse trials. Described in the journal Cell, the antivenom combines protective antibodies and a small molecule inhibitor and opens a path toward a universal antiserum. ...
"The donor, for a period of nearly 18 years, had undertaken hundreds of bites and self-immunizations with escalating doses from 16 species of very lethal snakes that would normally kill a horse," ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• We report a systematic method for the construction of a broad-spectrum snake antivenom
• Broadly neutralizing antitoxin antibodies were identified from a venom-immune subject
• Broad toxin neutralization involved recognition of conserved toxin-receptor interfaces
• A 3-agent cocktail blocked envenomation by 19 diverse WHO Category 1 and Category 2 snakes
Summary
Snake envenomation is a neglected tropical disease, with 600 species causing over 100,000 deaths and 300,000 permanent disabilities in humans annually.
Broadly neutralizing antibodies and broad chemical inhibitors have been proposed as solutions, but how to develop a therapeutically effective cocktail and the number of required components have been unclear.
To address this gap, we iteratively recovered two broadly neutralizing antivenom antibodies from the memory B cells of a hyperimmune human donor with extensive snake venom exposure.
The antibodies recognized conserved neutralizing epitopes on prevalent long and short snake neurotoxins, with crystal structures revealing antibody mimicry of the interfaces between these neurotoxins and their host target, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor.
We combined and tested these antibodies and the phospholipase inhibitor varespladib. A 3-component cocktail rescued animals from whole-venom challenge of all species in a 19-member WHO Category 1 and Category 2 elapid diversity set, with complete protection against most snakes observed."
Graphical abstract
Figure 1 In vivo and in vitro selection for broadly neutralizing antitoxin antibodies
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