Scientists discover a powerful new antivenom hidden in rattlesnake blood — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Sean B. Carroll and University of Maryland colleagues found that combining toxin-blocking FETUA proteins from rattlesnake blood produced lab results about 10 times more potent than the current sheep-derived commercial rattlesnake antivenom.
- Individual FETUA proteins could only partially counter venom effects — one might reduce bleeding, another interfere with enzyme activity — but optimized combinations completely neutralized the lethal effects of rattlesnake venom and provided cross-species protection against multiple vipers separated by millions of years of evolution.
- FETUA-3, first identified by Carroll's lab in 2022 as a protein that blocks metalloproteinase toxins, is the foundation of the new study, which targets one of three major viper toxin families the researchers aim to address.
- Snakebite kills an estimated 80,000 to 140,000 people annually according to the WHO, and existing antivenoms face drawbacks including high cost, variable quality and serious immune reactions.
- The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Viper Resource Center, has Carroll expecting the first commercial applications to be in veterinary medicine, with human treatments possibly following later.
Why it matters: WHO estimates 80,000–140,000 people die from snakebites yearly, mostly in rural areas with poor antivenom access, and current treatments rely on animal hosts, cost heavily and vary in quality. Carroll envisions a recombinant version being safer, less expensive and easier to manufacture at scale than existing animal-derived antivenoms — with veterinary products likely reaching market first.
Ask SkimNews
