Anti-venom tests work on mice

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 18

Anti-venom tests work on mice

NZPA-Reuter Boston British researchers have announced a technique that may lead to cheaper antivenoms and widely available immunisation against poisonous snake bites. Researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, writing in the “New England Journal of Medicine,” said tests on mice showed the technique, in which venom was coated with animal fat and injected in large doses into the bloodstreams of mice, produced long-lasting protection against snake poisons. Poisonous bites are now treated with costly drugs produced in a long process involving the injection of small doses of snake venom

into animals. Eventually, the animals’ immune systems yields a substance used to treat humans bitten by poisonous snakes. Using the venom from the ■carpet viper, found throughout Asia and Africa, the researchers found it could be injected into mice in large doses if it was coated in fat globules called liposomes. Because the liposomes release the poison gradually, in a way similar to a timerelease cold remedy, the animal’s immune system could develop a resistance to the venom. The technique has also worked with rabbits and sheep, the researchers said.