The team hopes 95Mat5 could form the basis of the first monoclonal antibody treatment used against snake bites. Because it would be based on a human molecule, rather than “foreign” horse antibodies, it should also be “safer than current antivenom”, said Prof Casewell.
“Scalability is unlikely to be a major challenge once an appropriate manufacturing partnership is in place,” he added, though he noted that reaching the rural regions most at risk is likely to remain a “major hurdle”.
Still, while the identification of 95Mat5 and the success in mice is a major moment, it will take some time for a drug to be available.
“There remain considerable challenges,” said Prof Casewell. “There are currently no monoclonal antibodies in clinical use for snakebite, so this would be several years away from implementation. We would need to assess safety and efficacy of the antibody in clinical trials first, before any approval for use in patients.
“Also, this antibody is only tackling one class of toxins – though this is an important class – so additional work needs to be done on discovering other antibodies or drugs that neutralise other types of toxins too.
“But if we can develop similar broadly inhibiting solutions for other toxin families … then in the long term we might be able to develop a combination therapy that does provide that global breadth,” Prof Casewell said.
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