Scientists have developed what they believe is the most widely effective antivenom ever — and the secret ingredient came from one man’s blood.
In the course of their research, the team found a man, Tim Friede, who had been bitten hundreds of times by 16 species of deadly snakes — the poison lethal enough to kill a horse, according to the scientists — over an 18-year period.
Friede had received the bites intentionally as part of a self-immunization process using escalating doses. As a result, he had become "hyper-immune" to the effects of snake neurotoxins, the researchers stated.
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"After being introduced to Tim Friede and his incredible journey and immune history, we decided there was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study his blood and isolate the basis of a universal antivenom," lead study author Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, a San Francisco biotechnology company, told Fox News Digital.
Friede agreed to participate in a study in which he donated two blood samples.
The researchers isolated target antibodies from Friede’s blood that reacted with neurotoxins found within 19 of the world’s deadliest snakes.
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They combined two of the antibodies with another molecule to create a new antivenom. In mouse trials, the antidote was found to be protective against venom from the black mamba, king cobra, coral snakes and tiger snakes, among others.
The results were published on May 2 in the journal Cell Press.
Friede said that by participating in the study, he is "helping humanity."
"I know I am helping someone possibly 8,000 miles away, and that makes me feel really good," he said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"I realize what I've been doing over the years hasn't been in vain with this research."
"The reason I have been bitten so many times is to get more comfortable with it," he added. "It became a lifestyle for me, almost like an addiction."
The hope is that Friede’s "once-in-a-lifetime, unique immune history" could result in a "broad-spectrum" or universal antivenom, according to Glanville.
"If formulated for intramuscular delivery in a ‘venom EpiPen’ form, which is our preference, it could then be deployed more broadly without any IV requirement, including very rural settings or hiker’s backpacks," he told Fox News Digital.
The researchers now plan to expand the trials to treat dogs that have been brought to veterinary clinics after receiving snake bites, according to the release.
They will also work to create another antivenom to protect against viper bites.
Prior to this research, the process for making antivenom has been more or less the same over the past century, according to the researchers.
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"Typically, it involves immunizing horses or sheep with venom from single snake species and collecting the antibodies produced," they wrote. "While effective, this process could result in adverse reactions to the non-human antibodies, and treatments tend to be species and region-specific."
Approximately 5.4 million people are bitten by snakes each year globally, according to the World Health Organization. Among those, 2.7 million are poisoned by venom, which can cause death or permanent disability.
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The research was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research program, and the U.S. Department of Energy.
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