Opossums might help develop snake-bite medicine

The Blaze website has published an article titled These Guys Roam Your Backyard at Night but Scientists Just Used Them to Create an Antivenom That Could Save Thousands of Lives, written by Liz Klimas. The article includes the following passages:

It has been known for several decades that opossums were not susceptible to venomous snakebites — some even eat poisonous snakes. But research that could lead to a possible antidote for human use didn’t move forward until recently.

Dr. Claire Komives with San Jose State University followed up on studies in the 1940s and 1990s to develop an anti-venom out of an opossum protein that was previously identified as allowing the animal combat snake venom. The researchers found the anti-venom worked in mice against bites from diamondback rattlesnakes and Russell’s vipers. ...

With about 421,000 cases of poisonous snakebites and 20,000 deaths as a result each year, according to the International Society on Toxicology, Komives and her team believe this new method to produce anti-venom, which is inexpensive, could be especially beneficial in countries like India, Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. What’s more, Komives believes it could be effective against scorpion stings and reactions to other toxins as well.

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An opossum eating a snake

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See also another article titled The Amazing Opossums: Neutralizes almost all poisons.