Scientists create antivenom using blood of man bitten by snakes hundreds of times
Scientists create antivenom using blood of man bitten by snakes hundreds of times
NEW DELHI: (May 3) Scientists have created an antivenom -- "the most broadly effective to date" --using blood donated by a person who developed a 'hyper immunity' to snake venom through snake bites and self-immunisations.
Over a period of nearly 18 years, the donor, Timothy Friede, exposed himself to 856 self-immunisations, including snake bites and doses of venoms of 16 lethal snake species, enough to "kill a horse", said first author Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, Inc., a US-based vaccine developer.
Through his unique immune history, Friede's body had created antibodies that were effective in countering a broad range of snake toxins and "could give rise to a broad-spectrum or universal antivenom", Glanville added.
