IISc develops synthetic antibody that can neutralise deadly snakebite toxin

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a synthetic human antibody that can neutralise a potent neurotoxin produced by the Elapidae family of highly toxic snakes, which includes the cobra, king cobra, krait and black mamba.

The team at IISc's Scripps Research Institute and the Evolutionary Venomics Lab (EVL) at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), adopted an approach used earlier to screen for antibodies against HIV and COVID-19 in order to synthesise the new venom-neutralising antibody.

“This is the first time that this particular strategy is being applied to develop antibodies for snakebite treatment,” says Senji Laxme RR, PhD student at EVL, CES and co-first author of the study published in 'Science Translational Medicine.'

The researchers say that this development takes us one step closer to a universal antibody solution that can offer broad protection against a variety of snake venoms. Snake bites cause thousands of deaths every year, especially in India and subSaharan Africa.

The current strategy for developing antivenoms involves injecting snake venom into equines like horses, ponies and mules, and collecting antibodies from their blood. But there are several problems.

“These animals get exposed to various bacteria and viruses during their lifetime,” explains Kartik Sunagar, Associate Professor at CES and joint corresponding author of the study.

“As a result, antivenoms also include antibodies against microorganisms, which are therapeutically redundant. Research has shown that less than 10% of a vial of antivenom actually contains antibodies that are targeted towards snake venom toxins.”

The antibody developed by the team, according to an IISc press release, targets a conserved region found in the core of a major toxin called the threefinger toxin (3FTx) in the elapid venom.

They designed a large library of artificial antibodies from humans, which were displayed on yeast cell surfaces. They then tested the antibodies' ability to bind to 3FTxs from various elapid snakes around the world.

The team also tested their antibody against the whole venom of the monocled cobra from Eastern India and the black mamba from sub-Saharan Africa, and found similar results.