Need to know
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A man who has been bitten by more than 200 species of snakes has helped scientists develop a new antivenom drug.
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Herpetologist and envenomist Tim Fried has volunteered to bite hundreds of deadly venomous snakes over two decades.
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His efforts allowed researchers to create an antivenom cocktail that could reduce the effects of certain snake bites.
A man is voluntarily opening up about more than 200 snakebites – and scientists believe research into his immunity to venomous snakebites could help future snakebite victims.
Tim Fried, described as a self-taught herpetologist and venom expert by the biotech company Centivax, has spent two decades willingly biting hundreds of deadly venomous snakes. According to scientists who published research last year in the journal Cell In the antitoxin antibodies Fried developed, human snakebite efforts have helped researchers create an antivenom cocktail that can reduce the effects of certain snakebites.
Speaking to NBC News and Science News last year, Fried shared that he had a “simple curiosity” with venomous animals for years, trying to develop some immunity before he started injecting himself with small doses of snake venom. He increases the amount of venom he is injecting – which he himself has milked from the snake – to try to build up his endurance before the venomous snake bites him directly.
“At first, it was very scary,” Friday told NBC. “But the more you do it, the better you get at it, the calmer you get with it.”
A king cobra walks through its enclosure in the Bronx Zoo’s reptile house.
Credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty
He admitted to NPR last year that his experiments had been a “rocky road” and recalled being “put in the ICU after two cobra bites” that left him “in a coma for four days.”
However, the process allowed Fried to successfully develop immunity against many different deadly snakes, including black mambas, king cobras, and tiger snakes.
He hoped his research would also serve a purpose, he told NBC. Fried spent time emailing any scientist he could find and asking them to study their tolerance.
Eventually, a group of researchers returned to him and found that the immunity Fried had built up to snakes over the decades made him a hyperimmune human blood donor with antibodies that could be used in antivenom developments.
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“What was exciting about the donor was his unique once-in-a-lifetime immune history,” Jacob Glanville, the study’s lead author and Centivax CEO, said in a news release at the time. “In this case he potentially not only created these broadly neutralizing antibodies, but it could also give rise to a broad-spectrum or universal antivenom.”
“If anyone’s immune system is going to be impaired by having trouble concentrating,” Glanville told NPR of Fried, “it’s this guy, with all these snakes over and over again.”
More research on antivenom is needed. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 81,000 to 137,000 people die from snakebite each year, and nearly three times as many snakebites cause amputation and permanent disability.
According to NBC, the process of creating antivenom can also be expensive and difficult, as it involves injecting large mammals such as horses with venom and collecting the antibodies they produce.
However, researchers working with Centivax analyzed Friede’s unique antitoxin antibodies, enabling them to develop a new antivenom cocktail.
The cocktail is made by combining two of Fried’s antibodies with a drug that blocks toxins. The researchers found that the antivenom completely protected the mice against 13 species of snakes and partially against six more.
“This is important, because although there are millions of snakebite cases per year, most of them are in the developing world, which disproportionately affects rural communities,” Glanville said of the research.
According to Centivax, the next phase of testing the antivenom treatment will take place in Australia, using dogs brought in for snakebites.
“I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t believe it,” Fried said of learning about the research results and the resulting cocktail. “I know I’m doing something for humanity and giving back to science.”
As for Fred’s snakebite habit, it has been many years since he had close contact with a venomous reptile.
“[But] You can beat it and stay calm and stay calm, it’s a wonderful thing,” he told NPR.
Read the original article on People
