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Scientists from five countries, including the United Kingdom, are hoping to find a universal cure for snake bites using the same technology that has been used to detect HIV antibodies.
A new consortium of venom specialists in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Great Britain and the United States will locate and develop antibodies to treat serious snakebite diseases, affecting nearly 3 million people in the world every year.
The consortium will look for an antidote composed of "humanized antibodies" rather than conventional animal-based therapies, which can sometimes cause adverse effects in snakebite victims, said Professor Robert Harrison, head of the center. of research and interventions at the Liverpool School of Tropical. Drug.
"We are pursuing what we call the" next generation "of snake bite therapies, which we hope will be able to treat the bites of all snakes in Africa or Africa. India, in a community setting and without the need for a cold chain, "Harrison said.
"The conventional method of producing an antivenom to treat snakebites involves the purification of antibodies from horses or sheep immunized with venom and their injection to patients. This can lead to undesirable side effects and because of this, the antivenom should be administered in hospital.
"This means that the victims have to go to the hospital from their community, which is usually several hours away, resulting in the progression of a very serious pathology that can sometimes lead to serious disfigurement or death. "
UK Secretary of International Development Rory Stewart said the new antidote would help "develop an affordable, accessible and effective treatment" that would fund profitable research.
"In parts of Africa and Asia, snakebites are a daily threat, resulting in life-altering disabilities or – in the worst case, death," Stewart said.
"More than 80,000 people die each year from snake bites, and because of the wide variety of snake venoms, people often do not get the treatment they need in time, if at all."
The British commitment of £ 9 million is one of many recent commitments to transform snake bite management. Last week, the Wellcome Trust announced an £ 80m program to improve current therapies and develop new therapies. On Thursday, the World Health Organization announced a new strategy to halve the number of deaths worldwide caused by snake bites by 2030.
Together, these commitments "bring a complete change in the management of snakebites and a real hope for the future," Harrison said.
"In the last 50 or 60 years, there has been no substantial investment, so it's a radical change. Over the past 20 years, we have struggled to get enough money to fund research on improving snake bite management, and we are excited about the benefits we receive from funds and others. important groups such as the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The more science tackles it, the better the overall result. "
The new approach to finding a universal cure for snake bites was developed after Dr. Devin Sok, an American HIV scientist, realized that the methodology for locating different strains of HIV antibodies could also be applied to snake bites. Sok then contacted Harrison in Liverpool.
"Our consortium illustrates how major global health issues, such as snakebite, can be solved when leaders from different fields come together to share ideas, tools, technologies and lessons learned," he said. Sok.
"This type of synergy is a working model for identifying new solutions to long-standing global health problems and accelerating the development of products for neglected diseases."
Snake venom kills 138,000 people each year and disables another 400,000. Victims come from the poorest regions of Africa and India, where access to antidotes ranges from non-existent to minimal.
Still, antivenom is not the only solution, according to Harrison, who said that in sub-Saharan Africa, 90% of the available products were ineffective. "They are either designed for non-African snakes, or the concentrations are too low to be effective," he said.
Ben Waldmann, Snake Bites Program Manager at Health Action International, welcomed WHO's goal of halving the number of deaths from snakebite by 2030, but said governments should first understand the magnitude of the problem by accurately recording the number of annual deaths. Many victims live too far from hospitals to be treated by professionals.
"Our field research shows that snake bite victims, having no alternative, continue to visit traditional healers as the first point of call," Waldmann said.
"If communities are empowered and treatment options are improved, it follows that the role of traditional healers will be reduced to the benefit of an effective and reliable health system."
About 250 types of snakes have a medically harmful venom. The variety and complexity of their poisons pose a huge challenge for health workers.
Existing anti-venom therapies rely on 19th-century methods: snakes are milked for their venom, which is then injected into large animals such as horses, whose antibodies are harvested for use at home. ;man.
But these antivenoms can have harmful – and sometimes fatal – effects on patients, ranging from severe abdominal cramps to anaphylactic shock, because antibodies are generated from horses or sheep and are therefore "foreign".
The consortium, known as the Neglected Tropical Snake Bite Scientific Partnership (SRPNTS), will instead focus on the creation of "humanized antibodies" developed from blood cells taken from snake bite survivors, as well as only large animals such as camels, cows and horses immunized with venom. The goal is to create "the next generation of snake bite therapies that we will develop to recognize, bind and eliminate all toxins from African and Indian snakes," Harrison said.
However, the development of an effective antidote will require about four years of preclinical work, as well as another three years – "at least" – for manufacturing and clinical trials, he warned.
The consortium believes, however, that their combined knowledge can radically change the way snakebites are treated in a holistic manner.
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