Latest news with #Friede
7NEWS
11-05-2025
- Health
- 7NEWS
Tim injected himself with snake venom hundreds of times. Now, his blood could save lives
Immunologist Jacob Glanville came across media reports in 2017 of a man who had injected himself hundreds of times with the venom of some of the world's deadliest snakes, including cobras, mambas, and rattlesnakes — and allowed himself to be bitten. 'The news articles were kind of flashy. 'Crazy guy gets bit by snakes',' Glanville said. 'But I looked, and I was like there's a diamond in the rough here.' Glanville's diamond was Tim Friede, a self-taught snake expert based in California who exposed himself to the venom of snakes over the course of nearly 18 years, effectively gaining immunity to several neurotoxins. 'We had this conversation. And I said, I know it's awkward, but I'm really interested in looking at some of your blood,' Glanville recalled. 'He said 'finally, I've been waiting for this call'.' The pair agreed to work together, and Friede donated a 40-milliliter blood sample to Glanville and his colleagues. Eight years later, Glanville and Peter Kwong, Richard J. Stock Professor of medical sciences at Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, have published details of an antivenom that can protect against bites from 19 species of venomous snake — at least in mice — based on antibodies in Friede's blood and a venom-blocking drug. 'Tim, to my knowledge, he has an unparalleled history. It was different, very diverse species from every continent that has snakes, and ... he kept rotating between (the snake venoms) over a 17-year, nine-month history, and he took meticulous records the entire time,' Glanville said. 'However, we strongly discourage anyone from trying to do what Tim did,' Glanville added. 'Snake venom is dangerous.' Friede gave up immunising himself with snake venom in 2018 after some close calls, and he is now employed by Glanville's biotechnology company Centivax, Glanville said. Glanville is CEO and chairman of Centivax. The research was published Friday in the scientific journal Cell. CNN contacted Friede, but he did not respond to an interview request. The snakebite problem If you're unlucky enough to have a venomous snake sink its fangs into you, your best hope is an antivenom, which for the most part has been made in the same way since Victorian times. Traditionally, the process involves milking snake venom by hand and injecting it into horses or other animals in small doses to evoke an immune response. The animal's blood is drawn and purified to obtain antibodies that act against the venom. Producing antivenom in this way can get messy, not to mention dangerous. The process is prone to errors and laborious, and the finished serum can result in serious side effects. Experts have long called for better ways to treat snakebites, which kill some 200 people a day, mainly in the developing world, and leave 400,000 people a year with disabilities. The World Health Organization added snakebite to its list of neglected tropical diseases in 2017. Glanville, who grew up in rural Guatemala, said he had long been aware of the health problems posed by snakebites and immediately recognised that Friede's experience presented a unique opportunity. Exposing himself to the venom of snakes for nearly two decades, by injecting venom and allowing himself to be bitten, Friede had generated antibodies that were effective against several snake neurotoxins at once. 'Revolutionary' potential The researchers isolated antibodies from Friede's blood that reacted with neurotoxins found within the 19 snake species tested in the study, which included coral snakes, mambas, cobras, taipans, kraits and others. These antibodies were then tested one by one in mice poisoned by venom from each of the 19 species, allowing scientists to understand systematically the minimum number of components that would neutralise all the venoms. The drug cocktail the team created ultimately included three things: two antibodies isolated from Friede and the small-molecule drug varespladib, which inhibits an enzyme that is present in 95% of all snakebites. The drug is currently in human clinical trials as a standalone treatment. The first antibody, known as LNX-D09, protected mice from a lethal dose of whole venom from six of the snake species. The addition of varespladib granted protection against an additional three species. Finally, researchers added a second antibody isolated from Friede's blood, called SNX-B03, which extended protection across 19 species. The antivenom offered the mice 100% protection against the venom for 13 species and partial protection (20% to 40%) for the remaining six, the researchers noted in the study. Steven Hall, a snakebite pharmacologist at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, called it a 'very clever and creative way' to develop an antivenom. Hall wasn't involved in the research. And while the cocktail has not been tested in humans, should it be approved for clinical use, Hall said the human origin of the antibodies would likely mean fewer side effects than antivenoms made the traditional way using horses or other animals, which can often result in allergic reactions. 'It's impressive for the fact that this is done with one or two antibodies, plus a small-molecule drug, and that increases the number of species, versus a regular antidote. And I think it does a good job of highlighting the potential utility of combining a small-molecule drug with an antibody,' Hall added. 'If it makes it into clinic, makes it into people in the long run, it would be revolutionary. It actually would completely change the field in terms of snakebite (treatment),' he said. Columbia's Kwong said that the published research focused on a class of snakes known as elapids. It did not include viperids, the other major group of venomous snakes that includes rattlesnakes, saw-scaled vipers and additional species. However, the team is investigating whether additional antibodies identified in Friede's blood or other agents might offer protection against this viperid family of snakes. 'The final contemplated product would be a single, pan-antivenom cocktail or we potentially would make two: one that is for the elapids and another that is for the viperids because some areas of the world only have one or the other,' Kwong said. The team also wants to start field research in Australia, where there are only elapid snakes, allowing vets to use the antivenom on dogs bitten by snakes.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A self-taught snake expert's 200 snake bites may lead to a universal ‘cure' for snake venom
Sure, troops getting bitten and envenomated by poisonous snakes isn't high on the list of things the Department of Defense needs to worry about. It's probably not even in the top 100, but for the guy in the unit who was bitten by a Saw-Scaled Viper while out on patrol. That particular viper is active at night, very common in Afghanistan, and is responsible for the most deaths by snake bite. It would take about 15 minutes to become one of the biggest issues a troop has out in the field. But to combat a venomous snake bite, you need to get the specific snake's antivenin, if one is available. Getting a specific kind of snake antivenin anywhere in Afghanistan was a logistical nightmare, not to mention that the U.S. military had to acquire the treatment from the government of Iran – who has not traditionally been our best friend. It would be so much easier if your medic or doc just happened to have that kind of treatment readily available, but since there are more than 100 different kinds of snake antivenins available, the chances aren't great. In America's next war, however, things might be different. A former truck driver from California has been on a nearly 20-year journey of injecting himself with snake venom and his effort may have led to a universal cure for venomous snakebites. Tim Friede is a self-taught herpetologist, a scientist from an old breed. He's like Evan O'Neill Kane, who removed his own appendix to prove it could be done using local anaesthetic, or Dr. Barry Marshall, who ate a dish of H. pylori bacteria to prove it caused ulcers. He's a researcher at Centivax, a biotech firm with the mission of creating universal vaccines and broad spectrum anti-infectives. While the company is working with the Department of Defense to create new antibiotics and a universal vaccine for influenza, Friede is on a whole different project. Friede's project is a broad-spectrum anti-venom, but his methods are pretty unusual. He started out by injecting himself with snake venom to build up an immunity, in case he was bitten while handling snakes at work. When he received two cobra bites in a row that left him in a coma, he decided to take a different approach. He has since taken more than 200 bites and more than 700 injections of venom, many from the world's deadliest snakes with venom that can kill a human very quickly – unless that human is Tim Friede. The way antivenin (or anti-venom) serums are created is by injecting small amounts of the poison into animals like horses or lambs. When the animals' immune systems start producing antibodies to fight the intruder, the antibodies are harvested and made into life-saving treatments. The only problem is, historically, you need to know what bit you. The snake anti-venom serum has to be matched to the snake. Centivax, with its unique mission, started looking to create something more universal. That's where Friede came in. If the cobra that put Friede in a coma were to bite him today, the only effect it would have is a slightly annoyed Tim Friede. He's not only immune to cobras, he's been bitten by mambas, kraits and even taipans, the world's most toxic snake. 'It just became a lifestyle and I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing as hard as I could push,' Friede told the BBC. '… for the people who are 8,000 miles away from me who die from snakebite.' Centivax began looking for antibodies from 19 elapids, snakes whose venom is a potent neurotoxin in Friede's blood. The ones they chose are identified by the World Health Organization as among the world's deadliest. They found them. A study published in the medical journal 'Cell' revealed two 'broadly neutralizing antibodies' that protected lab mice from fatal doses from 13 of 19 venomous snake species. That kind of protection means it can cover venomous bites from some snakes that don't currently have an antivenin and may even lead to a treatment for all elapid bites. There are currently a dozen different classes of toxins within snake venoms, and because of Tim Friede's 20-year mission, there may soon be a 'cure' for all of them within the next 20 years. 'I'm doing something good for humanity and that was very important to me,' he said. 'I'm proud of it. It's pretty cool.'
Hindustan Times
08-05-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Tim Friede: Man bitten by snakes hundreds of times helps create broad antivenom
It's not often that a major scientific paper leads one to a story like this. It was while reading a new Cell study on snake venom antibodies that the name of a 'hyperimmune donor' in the acknowledgments caught my eye. Behind that clinical language lies the story of Tim Friede, a self-taught snake enthusiast from Wisconsin whose obsession might one day unlock a medical innovation for snakebite victims across India and the world. Snakebites kill up to 140,000 people each year, and among countries, India bears the highest toll. Treatment has changed little since the 1890s, when Albert Calmette first used horse serum to neutralise cobra venom in colonial India. Antivenoms today are still based on animal-derived polyclonal antibodies, which often cause allergic reactions, don't work against all species, require cold-chain storage, and depend on correct species identification. For patients in remote villages who travel hours to reach a hospital, these limitations can be fatal. This is where our hyperimmune donor comes in. Friede, a former truck mechanic with no formal scientific training, had been fascinated by snakes since childhood. In 2001, he decided to take that interest to the extreme. After methodically working up to it, he let himself be bitten by a venomous snake for the first time. 'They want to kill me,' he told NPR. 'And I want to survive.' Friede's first two cobra bites landed him in a coma for four days. Undeterred, he went on to receive 202 snakebites from some of the world's deadliest species and injected himself with 654 additional doses of venom. Over time, his blood became an archive of immune responses to snake-derived neurotoxins from around the world. That's where Jacob Glanville, a computational immunologist and CEO of the biotech firm Centivax, enters the story. Glanville had been looking for a universal target across multiple snake species. Instead of relying on animals like horses, he wanted to find potent human antibodies that could be mass-produced. When he heard about Friede, he knew he had found an unprecedented immune system. (The researchers are quick to emphasise that no one should follow Friede's path. He stopped self-immunising in 2018). In the Cell study, Glanville's team isolated two extraordinarily broad and potent antibodies from Friede's blood. These antibodies targeted conserved regions in long- and short-chain neurotoxins, which are proteins shared across dozens of deadly snakes. Combined with a small molecule called varespladib, which inhibits a third venom component, they created a three-part cocktail. It protected mice from lethal doses of venom from 13 snake species and extended survival in six more. Among the snakes tested were many that plague the Indian subcontinent, including the common krait and Indian cobra. Anirban Mahapatra is a scientist and author, most recently of the popular science book 'When the Drugs Don't Work: The Hidden Pandemic That Could End Medicine'. The views expressed are personal.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A Man Let Deadly Snakes Bite Him for 20 Years. His Immune System Is Now a Scientific Marvel.
The antitoxin antibodies found in the blood of a Wisconsin man—who voluntarily let snakes bite him for alm0st 20 years—is helping scientists create better antivenom drugs for snakebites. By combing two of the antibodies found in Tim Friede with a venom-blocking drug, the biotech company Centivax developed full protection against 13 snake species and partial protection for a further six. The team hopes to develop treatment for viper snake bites, and will soon begin testing this new antivenom in Australia on dogs brought in to clinics with snake bite injuries. Snakes are one of the most fascinating animals on the planet. They can use their tongues to smell, they can hear despite their lack of external ears, and yes, they can be extremely deadly. Every year, snake bites cause between about 80,000 and 100,000 deaths worldwide, and leave around 300,000 others with disabilities. So it's with good reason that an estimated one-third of adults worldwide experience ophidiophobia—a fear of snakes. However, this prevalent fear isn't an issue for Tim Friede, who has spent two decades voluntarily letting hundreds of deadly venomous snakes bite him. And, like secret spies who slowly inoculate themselves to various poisons due to prolonged exposures, Friede is now effectively immune to a variety of lethal snakes, including black mambas, king cobras, and tiger snakes. Now, a new study details an antivenom developed from Friede's impressive antitoxin antibodies. The results of the study were published in the journal Cell . 'What was exciting about the donor was his once-in-a-lifetime unique immune history,' lead author Jacob Glanville, who's also the CEO of the biotech company Centivax, said in a news release. 'Not only did he potentially create these broadly neutralizing antibodies, in this case, it could give rise to a broad-spectrum or universal antivenom.' Although a living nightmare for most, Friede—who is described as a self-taught venom expert and serves as the director of herpetology at Centivax—said that two decades of snake bites were, in the end, a scientific endeavor. Speaking to Science News, Friede said that his process is a methodical one. First, he milks snakes of their venom and injects it into his body, increasing the dosage over time. This allowed his body the time necessary to develop antitoxin antibodies that could fight off future snake bites, otherwise Friede would've died many times over. Then, once sufficiently immune, Friede had the snake bite him directly to test his immunity. This… didn't always go according to plan, like the time when twin bites from an Egyptian cobra and a monocled cobra sent him to the hospital (and into a coma for four days). 'It always burns and it's always, always painful,' Friede told Science News. 'Was it a mistake? Yes. Was it stupid? Yes.' But now, Friede's 'mistakes' could benefit millions of future snakebite victims. By analyzing Friede's unique antitoxin antibodies, scientists developed an antivenom cocktail that can diminish the deadly effects of some of the world's most dangerous snakes. Centivax created the cocktail by combining two of Friede's antibodies (called LNX-D09 and SNX-B03) with a toxin-blocking drug called varespladib. Once tested on mice, the antivenom drug protected the rodents completely from 13 snake species, and partially protected them from a further six. The team will begin testing these new anitvenom treatments in Australia on dogs who are brought in for snake bite injuries, and hopes to provide similar treatment for viper bites as well. 'We're turning the crank now, setting up reagents to go through this iterative process of saying what's the minimum sufficient cocktail to provide broad protection against venom from the viperids,' Peter Kwong, a lead author of the study from Columbia University, said in a press statement. Snakes still broadly inspire fear in most of us, but with the help of brave (and somewhat reckless) ophiophilists like Friede, maybe the world can one day begin to also love the amazing creatures attached to those menacing fangs. You Might Also Like
Scientific American
07-05-2025
- Health
- Scientific American
Blood of Man Who's Had 200 Snakebites Helps Make a Potent Antivenom
Scientists have made a potent antivenom using antibodies from a man who has been bitten hundreds of times by venomous snakes. The therapy protects mice against the venoms of 19 species of deadly snake, including the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah). The antivenom combines the existing drug varespladib with antibodies that are copies of those in the blood of Tim Friede, a US snake collector who has given himself more than 600 doses of venom to build up his immunity. He has also been bitten roughly 200 times by venomous snakes. The antivenom is reported today in a paper in Cell. Scientists say that the research could lead to direly needed treatments, but that its reliance on material from a person who performed dangerous experiments on himself makes it ethically murky. The paper's authors say they played no part in Friede's self-exposure to venom. 'We did not advise Friede to do this and no one else needs to do this again — we have all the molecules we need,' says co-author Jacob Glanville, chief executive of biomedical firm Centivax in South San Francisco, California. 'Snake venom is dangerous,' he adds, and he cautions people not to follow Friede's example. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Imperfect remedies Current antivenoms are made by injecting horses and other animals with snake venom and then gathering the resulting antibodies. Each antivenom protects against the venom of at most a few species. 'Considering the advanced technologies available in immunology today, it is unacceptable to continue relying on these outdated methods for treating snake bites,' says Kartik Sunagar, a biologist who develops antivenoms at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. The paper's authors sought to make an antivenom that would protect against a wide range of the world's 600-plus venomous snake species. As a start, the team focused on the Elapidae family, which includes nearly half of those species. Elapid venom contains peptides called short-chain neurotoxins (SNX) and long-chain neurotoxins (LNX). Both types of peptide bind to the same receptors on nerve cells, impairing communication between neurons and potentially causing muscle paralysis and respiratory failure. Don't try this at home Glanville and his co-author Peter Kwong, a biochemist at Columbia University in New York City, had read news coverage about Friede, who took careful notes about his venom exposure. After receiving approval from an ethics review board, getting informed consent from Friede, and supplying him with documents about the dangers of snake venom, the team collected two vials of Friede's blood. They isolated antibodies from it and tested them against a panel of toxins from elapid snakes. Antibodies that bound to the toxins were then tested in mice that had been dosed with snake venom. Seeking to add protection against even more species, the researchers tested a third element: varespladib, which inhibits a snake-venom enzyme that breaks down muscle and nerve tissue. They found that a cocktail made up of varespladib and two antibodies from Friede allowed mice to survive otherwise lethal doses of venom from any one of 19 species of dangerous elapid snakes. One of the antibodies binds to a molecular feature shared by toxins in the LNX family. The other binds to a feature shared by toxins in the SNX family. Glanville says that exact copies of human antibodies could pose less risk of adverse reactions than those based on animal antibodies and broad-spectrum synthetic antibodies designed with computational approaches. Sunagar and other scientists expressed concerns about the ethics of this research, because of the risks Friede took. But he also says that the study is well executed, and shows that combinations of small-molecule drugs such as varespladib and monoclonal antibodies — copies of human antibodies — hold promise. However, it's not clear whether these antibodies can be produced at an industrial scale for an affordable price, he says. Jean-Philippe Chippaux, a specialist in venomous-snake bites and an emeritus researcher at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development in Paris, says that the main challenge in addressing snake bite is not the efficacy of the treatments, but the fact that they are often administered too late. 'We need to think about ways to bring antivenoms closer to the areas where venomous snake bites occur and to convince patients to come to the hospital more quickly,' he says. 'There is no reason to believe that the new generation of broad-spectrum antibodies will achieve these results.' Glanville says he is thinking about ways to make these therapies more portable and affordable. He also says it's important to provide proof that the cocktail works in the real world before initiating any human trials. Centivax is planning to test the experimental cocktail in dogs bitten by snakes in Australia. Dogs will first be given the experimental treatment; if it doesn't work after a few minutes, they will receive conventional antivenom.
