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00:04 Snakebites can be deadly, with the World Health Organization reporting that between
00:08 81,000 and 138,000 people die from them
00:12 every year. This is largely because snakebite antivenom is specific
00:16 to a species, meaning you need to have the right antivenom on hand, and the person who
00:20 was bitten will have to identify the snake. However, researchers now say they are one step
00:24 closer to creating a universal antivenom, one which could treat diverse
00:28 snakebites. Current antivenoms are made by injecting small amounts of snake
00:32 venoms into horses and then harvesting the antibodies. This method
00:36 is more than a century old, and it produces fairly weak antivenoms.
00:40 It also causes severe side effects in humans, since it was made using horse blood.
00:44 Now researchers say they have developed a new lab-made antibody, which can
00:48 deactivate a common neurotoxin found in many snakevenoms. They
00:52 indicate that not only can it be produced with higher concentrations of antibodies, but they
00:56 could also be humanized to avoid those side effects. The researchers are looking
01:00 specifically at a class of neurotoxins which cause paralysis, specifically
01:04 the paralysis of nerve signals which control lung function. In a lab study on rats,
01:08 those injected with lethal doses from a diverse selection of snakevenoms
01:12 survived after being treated with the lab-grown antibodies.
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