Scientists have successfully developed an antivenom with "unprecedented" capabilities from the blood of Tim Friede, an American who intentionally injected himself with snake venom for nearly two decades. According to a report in the BBC, antibodies found in Friede's blood proved effective against lethal doses from a wide variety of snake species, as demonstrated in animal experiments.
Unlike current treatments that must specifically match the snake species that bit the victim, the new research represents a significant step toward developing a universal antivenom against all snakebites, which claim up to 140,000 lives annually and leave three times as many with amputated limbs or permanent disability.
In total, Friede endured more than 200 bites and over 700 injections of venom he prepared himself from some of the world's deadliest snakes, including various species of mambas, cobras, taipans, and kraits. Friede, who previously worked as a truck mechanic, began his self-experiments out of personal interest in snakes and documented the process on YouTube.
He told the BBC that he "completely messed up" in the early stages when two cobra bites in 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 miss work," he said.
Friede's motivation to continue the experiments, despite the danger, was his desire to develop better treatments for snakebite victims worldwide. "It just became a lifestyle and I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing as hard as I could push – for the people who are 8,000 miles away from me who die from snakebite," he explained to the BBC.
Currently, antivenom is produced by injecting small doses of snake venom into animals like horses. Their immune system fights the venom by producing antibodies, which are collected for use as medicine. The problem is that venom and antivenom must closely match each other, as the toxins in a venomous bite vary from one species to another. For example, antivenom created from snakes in India is less effective against the same snake species in Sri Lanka.
A research team led by Dr. Jacob Glanville, CEO of the biotechnology company Centivax, began searching for a type of immune defense called "broadly neutralizing antibodies." Instead of targeting the unique part of the toxin, these antibodies target parts common to entire groups of toxins.
When he heard about Friede, Dr. Glanville contacted him. "I immediately thought 'if anyone in the world has developed these broadly neutralizing antibodies, it would be him,'" he told the BBC. "In the first conversation, I said to him, 'This might sound strange, but I would really like to get a sample of your blood.'"
The research focused on snakes of the elapid family, such as coral snakes, mambas, cobras, taipans, and kraits. These snakes primarily use toxins that attack the nervous system (neurotoxins), which paralyze the victim and can be fatal when they paralyze the breathing muscles.
The researchers selected 19 snake species identified by the World Health Organization as the most deadly, and scanned Friede's blood. Their research, published in the scientific journal Cell, identified two antibodies effective against two types of nerve toxins. Combined with an additional drug, they created an antivenom mixture that in mouse experiments protected against lethal doses from 13 of the 19 snake species, with partial protection against the remaining six species.
"This is protection of unprecedented breadth, likely covering a wide range of snakes for which there is currently no available antivenom," Dr. Glanville said. The team continues to improve the antivenom and examine whether adding a fourth component could lead to complete protection.
It's important to note that the current research focused only on elapid snakes. The second group of venomous snakes – vipers – primarily use toxins that attack the blood, rather than the nervous system toxins, so the antivenom developed in this current research is not effective against them. The researchers' great hope is to develop either a single antivenom effective against all types of venom, or alternatively, two separate injections – one for elapids and one for vipers.
Professor Peter Kwong from Columbia University, who participated in the research, assessed future progress. "I believe that in the next ten or fifteen years we will have something effective against all types of toxins," he said. He added that "Tim's antibodies are truly exceptional – he essentially taught his immune system to achieve the broadest recognition of toxins."
Professor Nick Casewell, head of the Center for Snakebite Research at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, who was not part of the research, defined the achievement as "definitely innovative," providing "strong evidence" for a promising direction. However, he emphasized that there is "still much work to do" and that the antivenom still needs to undergo extensive testing before it can be approved for human use.
For Friede himself, the progress in research "makes me feel good. I'm doing something good for humanity, and that was very important to me. I'm proud of it. It's pretty cool," he told the BBC.
