Snake venomNew Technique to Transform Anti-Venom Production
Snake bites kill more than 120,000 people a year, more than a third of them in India. About 400,000 lose limbs after amputations become necessary to prevent the spread of the venom. The number of people bitten by snakes is increasing as a result of more people living near areas which are snake habitats, but the production of venom antidotes has not changed much since anti-venom was first produced in 1896. Scientists are ready to transform the production of anti-venom after mapping the DNA of the Indian cobra for the first time.
Scientists are ready to transform the production of anti-venom after mapping the DNA of the Indian cobra for the first time.
Snake bites kill more than 120,000 people a year, more than a third of them in India. About 400,000 lose limbs after amputations become necessary to prevent the spread of the venom.
The National reports that even as the number of people bitten by snakes is increasing as a result of more people living near areas which are snake habitats, the production of venom antidotes has not changed much since anti-venom was first produced in 1896.
for more than a hundred years.
The antiquated technique — involving injecting a horse with venom, then harvesting the horse’s blood after antibodies have been produced – is costly and imprecise. It also produces anti-venom in quantities which are insufficient for coping with the growing need for it.
A study published Monday in the journal Nature Genetics promises to help transform the process after a researchteam created a detailed map of the cobra’s 38 chromosomes. The research is the first to tie the cobra’s 19 venom toxins to the genes which produce them, allowing for a new anti-venom production method.
The mapping of the cobra’s chromosomes will allow the placing of the genetic sequence responsible for each toxin into a yeast or bacterium, and these single-celled organisms will produce large quantities of each poison.
Similar technique has been used for decades to produce insulin.
The Nation notes that the researchers will then monitor how these individual poisons interact with a library of synthetic human antibodies, using a technique called phage display. The synthetic antibodies which stick to the toxins will be the ones that can save snake-bite victims. These antibodies can then be mass produced in the lab.
The cobra’s venom is not the only toxin that can be treated this way. As the DNA of more species of venomous snakes is mapped – especially of the three other snakes which, along with the cobra, are regarded as the “Big Four” deadly snakes: Russell’s viper, the saw-scaled viper, and the common krait — the technique may be used to create a catalogue of antidotes. The research team says that their ultimate goal is to produce a blend that serves as a universal anti-venom.
The Wellcome Trust , which in 2018 launched its own £80 million push to develop better anti-venom, offers the following information about the danger of snake venom:
• 50 people are bitten by a snake every five minutes, of whom 25 will be injected with venom. Four will be permanently disabled and one will die.
• Snake bites cause 400,000 amputations a year, almost seven times as many as the number of amputations performed in the U.S. Civil War.
• They kill more than 120,000 people a year, mainly in low-income rural communities in Africa, Asia and South America.
• Some 6.8 billion people live within range of venomous snakes and of these 750 million live far from health services.
• The world produces less than half the anti-venom it needs.
• Venom varies widely, and many clinics are not equipped to respond with the correct anti-venom.
