Nature’s antivenom: By unlocking the snake’s own natural immunity, scientists are crafting a powerful new generation of antivenoms that could save millions of lives worldwide.

Snakebite affects at least 1.7 million people annually, causing approximately 100,000 deaths and 400,000 disabilities

Snakebite remains an undertreated tropical disease that affects over one million people annually, and new therapeutic approaches are needed.

Scientists developed an approach to viper antivenoms inspired by the observations that these snakes are typically resistant to the hemorrhagic and lethal effects of their own venoms and that this resistance can be transferred to experimental animals through snake sera. We show that a small set of serum metalloproteinase inhibitors from the

Western Diamondback rattlesnake are potent inhibitors of the lethality of its own venom, and able to block the lethality of other rattlesnakes and evolutionarily distant vipers. Recombinant natural antitoxins offer a promising approach for formulating more potent viper antivenoms.