PLoS NTD: New antivenom for Papuan taipan bites

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PLoS NTD: New antivenom for Papuan taipan bites

Postby toxinologist » Wed May 18, 2011 12:57 am

I am pleased to announce that our paper, describing the production and preclinical assessment of the first new snake antivenom for the Australasian region in more than 50 years, has been published today by PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases:

http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3A ... td.0001144

PLoS NTD is an open-access journal, so the paper is freely available to anyone who wishes to read or download it.

Cheers


David
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne
Parkville Vic 3010 AUSTRALIA

http://www.avru.org
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Re: PLoS NTD: New antivenom for Papuan taipan bites

Postby D@RRYL » Wed May 18, 2011 8:21 am

Wow, good work!
The bible says we have been given the power to tred apon serpants and scorpion. Please watch your step....
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Re: PLoS NTD: New antivenom for Papuan taipan bites

Postby Bushviper » Wed May 18, 2011 11:07 am

How soon can this be put into place so that lives can be saved? I was surprised that the "old methods" worked better than the "new methods".

Do you think you will run into the allergic reaction problem using this antivenom?
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Those who are afraid to ask are ashamed of learning.
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Re: PLoS NTD: New antivenom for Papuan taipan bites

Postby snake boy13 » Wed May 18, 2011 12:15 pm

Crazy cool
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Re: PLoS NTD: New antivenom for Papuan taipan bites

Postby toxinologist » Thu May 19, 2011 11:17 am

Bushviper wrote:How soon can this be put into place so that lives can be saved? I was surprised that the "old methods" worked better than the "new methods".

Do you think you will run into the allergic reaction problem using this antivenom?


Hi BV,
Clinical trials are starting in August. They'll take 2-3 years to complete.
The use of whole IgG in other antivenoms (e.g.: Costa Rica and Nigeria) hasn't been associated with significantly higher reaction rates.
The preparation itself is very clean, and there is actually some evidence in other published studies to suggest that it is the whole IgG that has the most effective binding to larger toxins, such as procoagulants. Our data certainly shows our antivenom being more effective against taipan procoagulant than the CSL F(ab')2 antivenom is, which tends to support this concept.
Watch this space for future publications when the clinical trials are completed.
The important message from this paper though is that, if we can raise an extremely potent antivenom against an extremely potent elapid venom in Australasia, and deliver it as an affordable 1 vial per patient treatment, there is no reason whatsoever why we could not do the same for African or Asian snake species!
Think about those possibilities ... we already are!
Cheers

David
Australian Venom Research Unit
University of Melbourne
Parkville Vic 3010 AUSTRALIA

http://www.avru.org
toxinologist
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Location: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Re: PLoS NTD: New antivenom for Papuan taipan bites

Postby yoson10 » Fri May 20, 2011 4:03 am

Asia needs new/more effective Krait antivenom badly... The anitvenom barely even works half the time for Kraits.
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