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New Sugar-Based Test Can Suss Out Snake Venoms

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on June 5, 2025.

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 5, 2025 — Sweet!

Synthetic sugars could be key to sussing out what type of snake venom is threatening a person’s life, researchers say.

Specifically, researchers have developed a way to use these sugars to detect the venom of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, according to a paper published recently in ACS Biomacromolecules.

“Snake venoms are complex and detecting the toxins at work is challenging but essential to save lives,” said senior researcher Alex Baker, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Warwick in the U.K.

The new test “lays the foundations for the rapid and cheap detection of snakebite beyond antibody-based techniques, potentially improving improve patient outcomes,” Baker added in a news release.

Every five minutes, 50 people are bitten by a snake worldwide, researchers said in background notes. Four will be permanently disabled by the venomous bite, and one will die.

Identifying the snake venom coursing through a person’s body is vital to counteracting its effects, but most places are home to a variety of different snakes that could have caused any given bite, researchers said.

Most tests use antibodies to diagnose snake venom, but they tend to be expensive, slow and inconsistent, researchers said.

To come up with a better test, researchers noted that some snake venoms – like the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake — work by binding to specific sugar molecules called glycans that are found on the surface of different types of human cells.

In the rattlesnake’s case, its venom latches onto red blood cells and platelets using glycans, interfering with blood clotting and immune response.

“We’ve produced an assay using synthetic sugars that mimic the sugars in our bodies that the toxins naturally bind to and an amplification system that makes this rapid test visible,” Baker said.

To create a rapid test, researchers attached lab-engineered synthetic sugars to gold nanoparticles. These particles change color when venom toxins bind to them.

"This assay could be a real game-changer for snake envenomation,” lead researcher Mahdi Hezwani, a former member of Baker's team at the University of Warwick, said in a news release. “Venoms from other snake species do not interact with glycans in the body.”

For example, researchers found that their test could tell rattlesnake venom from that of the Indian Cobra. The cobra’s venom didn’t bind to the same synthetic sugars.

“Hence this assay shows promise to be able to distinguish between different snake venoms based on their sugar-binding properties,” Hezwani said.

The new test can be modified to other snake venoms, since the sugars can be custom-made to recognize specific toxins, researchers said.

Sources

  • University of Warwick, news release, June 1, 2025

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted June 2025

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