Man who self-injected snake venom for 18 years creates unprecedented antivenom

A man who was bitten more than 200 times by dangerous venomous snakes has helped produce the most potent anti-venom ever made.

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Tim Friede, a Wisconsin man, has been injecting himself with snake venom for 18 years, racking up hundreds of injections and snake bites in his personal quest to attempt to become immune to the poisonous snakes he was keeping as pets.

Unfortunately for Friede, the human body's immunity to venomous pathogens is quite short-lived, with the developed antibodies that protect the body from harmful pathogens depleting after just a few short weeks. Due to this fact, Friede had to keep injecting himself with snake venom to maintain a healthy dose of immunity-driving antibodies.

It appears Friede's quest to be immune to his venomous pet snakes will pay off, and not just for him, as researchers have taken a sample of Friede's blood and discovered two antibodies that can create antivenom for 13 dangerous snake species, along with partial protection against another six species.

The new anivenom was tested in mouse studies, and now the team behind it hopes to create a universal antivenom that is able to protect against more species and no longer uses the traditional method of acquiring antivenom, through the extraction of antibodies developed in horses or other mammals.

Antivenom is typically created by injecting animals with small doses of the venom and, over time, larger and larger doses, creating an immunity response within the animal that is then extracted. The researchers want to do-away with this process, and believe Friede's strategy was the key to unlocking a better antivenom. But that doesn't mean anyone should try it, as it's obviously quite dangerous.

"He ... produced something remarkable, but that means that there's no reason why anyone else needs to go try," said Jacob Glanville, one of the researchers working on the project, and CEO of start-up Centivax

"Our goal is to produce a broad-spectrum cocktail for the vipers as well," Dr Glanville said. "Then ... we would have complete global protection from snake venom."