'Unparalleled' Snake Antivenom Made With Antibodies From a Man Bitten 200 Times (abc.net.au) 20
Long-time Slashdot reader piojo writes: Tim Friede, Wisconsin man, has been injecting himself with snake venom for 18 years to gain protection from his pet snakes. The antibodies he developed have formed two components of a three-part antivenom, which gives partial or total protection against 18 of 19 species of venomous snakes that were tested. Notably, the antivenom is ineffective against vipers.
From Australia's public broadcaster ABC: The team's results have been published today in the journal Cell... The new antivenom described in the study is very different to traditional antivenoms, according to Peter Kwong, a biochemist at Columbia University and one of the study's authors.
The scientists call their new antivenom "unparallel," according to the BBC, though the snake enthusiast (a former truck mechanic) had "initially wanted to build up his immunity to protect himself when handling snakes, documenting his exploits on YouTube." The team is trying to refine the antibodies further and see if adding a fourth component could lead to total protection against elapid snake venom... "Tim's antibodies are really quite extraordinary — he taught his immune system to get this very, very broad recognition," said Professor Peter Kwong [one of the researchers at Columbia University].
In a video interview, CNN shows footage of the man inducing snake bites (calling it "a classic do-not-try-this-at-home moment"). "I have a lot of notes in Excel files," he tells CNN, "where I hit these particular windows to where I know I can boost up before a bite."
"I don't just take the bite, because that can kill you. I properly boost up, and methodically take notes, and weigh the venomes out very specifically..."
From Australia's public broadcaster ABC: The team's results have been published today in the journal Cell... The new antivenom described in the study is very different to traditional antivenoms, according to Peter Kwong, a biochemist at Columbia University and one of the study's authors.
The scientists call their new antivenom "unparallel," according to the BBC, though the snake enthusiast (a former truck mechanic) had "initially wanted to build up his immunity to protect himself when handling snakes, documenting his exploits on YouTube." The team is trying to refine the antibodies further and see if adding a fourth component could lead to total protection against elapid snake venom... "Tim's antibodies are really quite extraordinary — he taught his immune system to get this very, very broad recognition," said Professor Peter Kwong [one of the researchers at Columbia University].
In a video interview, CNN shows footage of the man inducing snake bites (calling it "a classic do-not-try-this-at-home moment"). "I have a lot of notes in Excel files," he tells CNN, "where I hit these particular windows to where I know I can boost up before a bite."
"I don't just take the bite, because that can kill you. I properly boost up, and methodically take notes, and weigh the venomes out very specifically..."
Two questions (Score:1)
Does he have life insurance?
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Is Mr. Friede single?
In your life, you will never do anything as consequential has Mr Friede. Me neither. You could sleep with a thousand women, and still not measure up to him.
Does he have life insurance?
Why not? He's now at less risk than anyone.
Re:Two questions (Score:4, Funny)
You could sleep with a thousand women, and still not measure up to him.
Sleeping with a thousand women versus getting bitten by hundreds of venomous snakes... hmm... yeah I'll go with the first option.
Re:Two questions (Score:4, Funny)
That depends, venomous snakes never try to babytrap you or claim they'll never bite someone else.
Next: Iocane Powder (Score:1)
Perhaps I'm ignorant of the underlying biology involved, but is anyone besides me having difficulty seeing how "antibodies" can be effective against hemotoxins or neurotoxins?
Re:Next: Iocane Powder (Score:4, Interesting)
While it isn't covered in lower level biology classes much, antivenom treatments were actually the first antibody treatments available. It's only recently that we've used antibody treatments for diseases such as COVID.
Basically, an antibody is simply a protein that binds to a target protein and has a marker on it basically saying "eat me!" Ideally, said antibody will bind to the target protein in such a way as to disable it. IE a viral particle with an antibody on it being unable to inject its payload because the "tube" is blocked.
Venom is mostly made up of a number of nasty proteins. Having antibodies that attach and neutralize the venom plus marking it for cleanup helps.
Re: (Score:3)
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wont do me any good (Score:2)
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Amazing guy (Score:3)
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He's been injected over 700 times, in addition to the bites. That's how he's doing the ones that can kill with one bite.
It's a hassle to do that every time, though. He knows his limits by now.
Re: Amazing guy (Score:2)
He certainly does know his limits now. From TFA:
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Here he is getting bit twice [youtube.com].
Geez. Here I was, all ready to say something along the lines of how if you were an electrician and you've been severely shocked 200 times, you might want to consider a career change. But this guy is intentionally putting his arms and the business end of nope ropes together. While I understand the whole "for science" aspect, it still seems a bit reckless, and I'm not sure how much I really want to applaud an example of something that could've just as easily ended in a Darwin Award.
It's like those Star Tre
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usually because it was some crazy Klingon honor thing
Don't be such an incredible dumbass. He's doing it specifically so his blood can be studied to make better antivenom.
It's the only way to push this forwards quickly, and because of ethical restraints the doctors can't do a study or ask people to do it. Only somebody courageous doing it and then submitting his blood for study can make this happen.
Why is this antivenom different from others? (Score:4, Interesting)
The magic is that three antibodies confer protection against many species of snake. But why doesn't this happen for existing antivenoms? From the ABC article:
antivenom is created using animal blood, like horses or other large mammals.
The animals are given small doses of the venom, and then over time given larger and larger doses. This helps the animal produce an increasing immune response without getting so sick they die.
From another article [theconversation.com]:
Broad-spectrum or “polyvalent” antivenoms are made by injecting horses with mixtures of venom from different species or different populations of snakes. However, the elevated antibody content per dose can increase the risk of adverse reactions.
It's not surprising that cells developed in a human are more suited to us than cells developed in horses. But the technique is fundamentally the same. Is the new antivenom better solely because it is human, or is it somehow more adapted as a result of being honed in vivo for 18 years?