Utilising snake endogenous toxin inhibitors for the development of improved antivenom treatments (360G-Wellcome-204731_Z_16_Z)

Snake envenoming causes significant annual mortality, predominantly in the developing world. Currently the only effective treatment is antivenom, which is produced by hyperimmunising large animals (usually horses) with crude venom, and then extracting and purifying the antibodies raised against the snake proteins. This method requires keeping and maintaining large numbers of livestock, a key contributor to the high cost. Furthermore, the efficacy of antivenom is completely dependent on the venom sample(s) utilised for production, and the animal-derived antibodies can cause unwanted immunogenic effects in the patient, such as anaphylaxis. This project aims to make steps towards developing new antivenom treatments by utilising the endogenous toxin inhibitors used by snakes to protect themselves from their own venom. First, both the toxin and toxin inhibitor repertoire of 5 species of venomous snake will be elucidated using multi-‘omic technologies. Candidate inhibitors will be expressed in human cell lines, and subsequently tested experimentally to determine their efficacy in neutralising venom effects which cause the most life-threatening pathology. This method will revolutionise the antivenom field, and pave the way to developing treatments which are more cost effective, have fewer side effects, require no live animals, and have a greater and wider efficacy in treating snakebite.