BACKGROUND The worldwide neglect of immunotherapeutic products for the treatment of snakebite has resulted in a critical paucity of effective, safe and affordable therapy in many Third World countries, particularly in Africa. Snakebite ranks high among the most neglected global health problems, with thousands of untreated victims dying or becoming permanently maimed in developing countries each...

The deliberations and conclusions of a Hinxton Retreat convened in September 2015, entitled "Mechanisms to reverse the public health neglect of snakebite victims" are reported. The participants recommended that the following priority actions be included in strategies to reduce the global impact of snake envenoming: (a) collection of accurate global snakebite incidence, mortality and morbidity d...

Understanding snake venom pharmacokinetics is essential for developing risk assessment strategies and determining the optimal dose and timing of antivenom required to bind all venom in snakebite patients. This review aims to explore the current knowledge of snake venom pharmacokinetics in animals and humans. Literature searches were conducted using EMBASE (1974-present) and Medline (1946-presen...

Medically important cases of snakebite in Europe are predominately caused by European vipers of the genus Vipera. The mainstay of snakebite therapy is polyclonal antibody therapy, referred to as antivenom. Here we investigate the capability of the monospecific V. berus antivenom, ViperaTAb®, to cross-react with, and neutralise lethality induced by, a variety of European vipers. Using ELISA and ...

INTRODUCTION Snake bite, a problem in public health, generally occurs where there is no electric power. METHODS A comparative clinical study was conducted with 102 victims of Bothrops snake bite, from the state of Amazonas, Brazil; 58 victims were treated with liofilizated trivalent antivenom serum (SATL) and 44 victims treated with liquid bivalent and monovalent antivenom serum (SAMBL). RE...

1 College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia, 2 Centre for Marine Microbiology and Genetics, Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, QLD, Australia, 3 AIMS@JCU, College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia, 4 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, ...

The immunotherapy was recently developed due to the improvement of purification techniques of antivenoms and results of the research in toxicology and pharmacology. The utilisation of highly purified IgG fragments leads to a better tolerance and a higher efficacy. Snake envenomations constitute in Africa, as in many tropical countries, an important public health problem. The annual incidence of...

We report the development of molecularly imprinted polyacrylamide nanoparticles that bind to and neutralize the activity of cytotoxins present in the venom of the Mozambique Spitting Cobra (Naja mossambica mossambica). The binding activity of these nanoparticles is avid and specific. These findings hold promise for the development of a synthetic antivenom.

BACKGROUND Envenomation by crotaline snakes (rattlesnake, cottonmouth, copperhead) is a complex, potentially lethal condition affecting thousands of people in the United States each year. Treatment of crotaline envenomation is not standardized, and significant variation in practice exists. METHODS A geographically diverse panel of experts was convened for the purpose of deriving an evidence-i...

Diagnosis of snake envenomation is challenging but critical for deciding on antivenom use. Phospholipase A2 enzymes occur commonly in snake venoms and we hypothesized that phospholipase activity detected in human blood post-bite may be indicative of envenomation. Using a simple assay, potentially a bedside test, we detected high phospholipase activity in sera of patients with viper and elapid e...