Man allows himself to be bitten by snake in name of science
WeirdNews
Tim Friede has a superpower – he is immune to snake bite
(Web Desk) - A self-taught herpetologist (reptile nerd) and venomous snake collector, he began injecting himself with diluted venom from his collection in case he ever got bitten accidentally.
Over the last twenty years he has taken on more than 700 doses of snake venom, each slightly stronger than the last, to boost his immunity. He is still alive despite 856 injections and more than 200 bites!
Amongst the snakes in his collection are eastern brown snakes, inland taipans and tiger snakes. All potentially lethal.
Now researchers from the Columbia University’s spinout Centivax, say Friede’s blood and its antibodies could potentially save lives.
“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 a kill a horse,” says first author biotechnologist Dr Jacob Glanville of Centivax.
“What was exciting about the donor was his once-in-a-lifetime unique immune history,” says Glanville. “Not only did he potentially create these broadly neutralizing antibodies, in this case, it could give rise to a broad-spectrum or universal antivenom.”
Building the antivenom included creating a testing panel with 19 of the World Health organisation’s (WHOs) category 1 and 2 deadliest elapid snakes, including coral snakes, cobras, taipans, mambas and kraits. Elapids are a family of mostly-venomous snakes with permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth.
The team then isolated antibodies from Friede’s blood which were then reacted with the neurotoxins found in the snakes’ venom. Testing the antibodies one by one, they were able to build a cocktail with enough components to “render all the venoms ineffective” says Glanville.
The cocktail contained three major components, including a donor antibody, which protected mice from a lethal dose of whole venom from six of the panel’s snake species, says Glanville. Further strengthening with ‘varespladib’, a known toxin inhibitor, protected against three more species. Adding a second Friede antibody gave protection across the full panel, he adds.
