Lou Ellen and I have been in Baringo county in Kenya. The flamingos of Lake Baringo draw the admirers. We have several anecdotes, but I’ll skip to the chase. Well, there was no chase but there could have been. This is snake country where Robert Rono, a physician and epidemiologist confronts the terror of snakebite for the people. Mambas’ and cobras’ bites are virtually death sentences. Antivenom is expensive, often unavailable, and given to causing anaphylactic shock.
Great relief may come from the work of Andreas Laustsen-Kiel’s team in Denmark. They isolated tiny antibodies that llamas and alpacas make against venom of 18 species of snake. I noted these in my podcast of 18 December 2019 as potentially protective against influenza. Here’s another good break - the research team sought a way to make antivenom without injecting horses or rabbits, combining antibodies against the gamut of snakes, and making it in bulk and at low cost.
They got the genetic sequence of the active “arms” of the antibodies, called nanobodies, and put the DNA into classic E. coli bacteria to make the proteins. They selected the best ones to combine. It works spectacularly in mice – protective and better at preventing tissue damage. Within 3 years they anticipate trials in humans. Mzuri sana!
This has been an outreach activity of the Las Cruces Academy, viewable at GreatSchools.org.
Source: Science, 30 October, pp. 428-9, reporting on work published the same date in Nature.
Image: Same
