cobra spitting The venom is incredibly powerful and causes skin necrosis, a rapid destruction of the skin, muscle, and bone surrounding the snake bite site. This damage cannot be effectively prevented with current antivenom treatments, and patients are often left with life-altering scars. In a new study, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Other researchers used cell and mouse experiments to determine which toxins in certain African cobra venoms cause tissue damage, and found that two different types of toxins are responsible for causing the pathology. It became clear that a combination was necessary. They then showed that valepradib, a repurposed drug that targets one of these toxin classes, effectively prevents skin and muscle damage in a toxin model in mice. The results of this study suggest that varespradib may be an effective treatment to prevent snakebite morbidity in Africa.
It is estimated that around 400,000 people around the world suffer long-term harm from snakebites each year, with a significant proportion of these in Africa being caused by cobra bites.
At present, there are no effective treatments to deal with the severe local poisoning caused by exhaling cobra venom.
Existing antivenoms only work on bites by other snake species and are often ineffective for treating localized envenomations because antivenom antibodies are too large to effectively penetrate the area surrounding the bite site. .
Professor Nicholas Casewell and colleagues at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine used the repurposed small molecule drug varespradib to block one of the two main toxins in cobra venom that cause skin necrosis. They discovered that this prevents skin and muscle damage.
“Our findings hold great promise for improving the treatment of tropical snakebites,” Professor Casewell said.
“Current treatments for spitting cobra bites are widely considered ineffective, meaning that rates of disability and amputation remain high in large parts of Africa.”
“Our data shows that blocking just one of the major families of toxins in cobra venom can prevent the debilitating tissue damage seen in thousands of snakebite patients each year. It shows that there is a high level of sexuality.”
The study authors first analyzed exhaled cobra venom to identify the toxins that cause venom-induced skin necrosis.
The results showed that the cytotoxic three-finger toxin (CTx) is the main culprit, but the phospholipase A2 (PLA2) toxin plays an important role in this process.
Local injections of the PLA2 inhibitor varespradib reduced the extent of skin necrosis even when administered within 1 hour after venom administration, and the protective effect conferred by this drug extended to venom-induced muscle toxicity.
The results of this study make varespradib an invaluable treatment for the tissue-damaging effects of black-necked and red-spitting cobra venom, which cause widespread morbidity in snakebite victims across the African continent. suggests that it is possible.
“These discoveries are very promising and not only provide a new treatment for which no effective one existed until now, but varespradib has already passed testing in human clinical trials such as snakebite. “Patients can be found quickly,'' said Dr Keira Bartlett, also from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Dr Stephen Hall, a researcher at Lancaster University, said: 'Snakebites are a neglected and devastating tropical disease, causing permanent injuries to hundreds of thousands of victims each year due to tissue destruction caused by necrotic snake venom. “I'm inflicting it on them,” he said.
“Our study shows that the repurposed drug varespradib is incredibly effective at inhibiting such necrosis caused by the African spitting cobra. This is an interesting discovery because their venom is particularly fast-acting and destructive.”
“We hope this research will help pave the way for future snakebite treatments that can save lives and limbs for victims around the world.”
a paper The content explaining the survey results is Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Keira E. Bartlett other. 2024. Skin necrosis caused by spitting cobra snake bites is caused by toxin enhancement and is prevented by the repurposed drug varespradib. PNAS 121 (19): e2315597121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2315597121
Source: www.sci.news
