12 August 2026
A mixture of proteins in snake blood can prevent the death of mice injected with an otherwise lethal dose of venom.
Western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) blood contains proteins that can staunch bleeding and prevent tissue degradation. Credit: Rolf Nussbaumer/Nature Picture Library
Globally, snakebites kill 80,000 to 140,000 people a year and lead to around 400,000 disabilities. Because many people who are bitten live in rural areas, there is insufficient access to antivenom. To find a solution, Sean Carroll at the University of Maryland in College Park and his colleagues decided to look into how snakes protect themselves against their own venom1.
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