New international research: A combination of drugs can help mice resist a variety of snake venom

BEIJING, Dec. 16 (Xinhua Sun Selffa) Springer Nature's international academic journal Nature-Communication recently published a drug research paper shows that the combination of two small molecule toxin inhibitors can help mice fight a variety of venomous snake venom. The results suggest that a combination of toxin inhibitors may help to find broad-spectrum therapies for snake bites.
, snake bites kill about 138,000 people a year in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-East Asia, Central and South America, according to the paper. Differences in the composition of snake venom mean that anti-serpentoxins based on antibodies are generally only effective for bites from specific snake species.
co-author Nicholas Casewell of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and colleagues explored the potential for a joint use of small molecule toxin inhibitors as a broad-spectrum snake venom antidote. In laboratory experiments, they found that a variety of molecules that had been conducted in Phase 2 clinical trials inhibited toxins from different families, thereby salivaifying the venom of poisonous snakes. In mouse experiments, the researchers combined two inhibitors (Marimas and Valeradi) after 15 minutes of venom in mice, and 24-hour monitoring of mice found that the molecules prevented mouse deaths and showed effectiveness in the venom of many venomous snakes in Africa, South Asia and Central America.
the authors concluded that their data used evidence that the combined use of small molecule toxin inhibitors was able to drug the important snake venom. While further preclinical studies are needed, the study suggests that these therapies are expected to be treated as pre-hospital treatments for snake injuries in the future.