Nature Communications (Dec 2020)

A therapeutic combination of two small molecule toxin inhibitors provides broad preclinical efficacy against viper snakebite

  • Laura-Oana Albulescu,
  • Chunfang Xie,
  • Stuart Ainsworth,
  • Jaffer Alsolaiss,
  • Edouard Crittenden,
  • Charlotte A. Dawson,
  • Rowan Softley,
  • Keirah E. Bartlett,
  • Robert A. Harrison,
  • Jeroen Kool,
  • Nicholas R. Casewell

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19981-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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Snakebite is a life-threatening neglected tropical disease that is currently treated using different antibody-based antivenoms, each effective against bites of specific snake species, but not others. Here, the authors show that a combination of two toxin-inhibiting repurposed drugs provides broad protection in experimental animals against the lethal effects of snakebites from multiple snake species.