About This Project

Death by snake venom in India, Africa, and South America are substantial. Traditional antidotes are prohibitively expensive ($100/dose) and have side effects. A new peptide-based antidote shows promise in treating certain snake venoms with no side effects. However, this needs further testing in Indian snakes, and needs to be cheaper. With your help, we can test this antidote in four prevalent Indian snakes, and begin designing a low cost bioprocess – targeting a $1/dose treatment.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Reported cases of death by snakebite in India are in the tens of thousands, but many cases go unreported because the affected population is predominantly in rural areas where treatments are not available and medical care is only available at a distance.

The current antivenoms available for purchase are mainly composed of treated horse serum, and cost over $100 USD/dose.

In addition to the high cost, serum-based treatments are not FDA-approved and often have temporary adverse effects on the patient due to the presence of naturally occurring, non-therapeutic components in the serum.

The antivenom peptide was recently chemically synthesized in the US, and found to neutralize venom from a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake and from a Pakistani Russell Viper. We want to test this in Indian snakes.

What is the significance of this project?

The peptide to be produced is significant because it appears to have no side effects when treating venom-infected mice.

The current commercial antivenoms are made from horse serum. Horses are injected with snake venom, the blood is collected afterwards, and the serum is purified for use in humans. This process results in antivenoms that can have adverse side effects on patients.

The current antivenoms are also too expensive for the population in rural areas in developing countries where the snakes are prevalent. Death by snakebite affects mainly the healthy, working population and children. It is a significant economic burden for developing countries.

WHO estimates as many as 1.8 million envenomations each year around the world. This is a truly significant problem in the Third World.

What are the goals of the project?

The principle goal of the project is to produce enough pure peptide using E. coli to test the activity with the venom of the four principle Indian snakes.

The antidote will be produced, purified and analyzed with LC/MS. Activity assays will be completed at the National Natural Toxin Research Center in Kingsville, TX.

The research will be done with students at San Jose State University, who will learn valuable research skills through this project.

Our broader goals, are to produce a very low cost antivenom antidote for the population in rural Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

We will be collaborating with a Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at IIT Delhi, which will enable the transfer of the technology to an Indian Biopharmaceutical company for low cost production.