Venom protection by broadly neutralizing antibody from a snakebite subject

Abstract

Snake envenomation is a neglected tropical disease, causing >100,000 deaths and 300,000 permanent disabilities in humans annually. Could monoclonal antibody technology provide a solution? Here, we recover Centi-3FTX-D09, a potent broadly neutralizing antivenom antibody from the B-cell memory of a human subject with snake venom exposure. Centi-3FTX-D09 recognized a conserved neutralizing epitope on long 3-finger toxins (3FTXs), a dominant snake neurotoxin. Crystal structures of Centi-3FTX-D09 in complex with 3FTXs from mamba, taipan, krait, and cobra revealed epitope mimicry of the interface between these neurotoxins and their host target, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Centi-3FTX-D09 provided in-vivo protection against diverse recombinant long 3FTXs, in-vivo rescue from whole venom challenge from cobras, black mamba, and king cobra, and, when combined with the phospholipase inhibitor varespladib, in-vivo protection extending to a majority of tested elapid venoms. Thus, a single antibody can broadly neutralize long neurotoxins and contribute to broad protection from envenomation.