Im curious why you need the venom of the venomous animal to create the corresponding anti-venom.
In: Chemistry
Antivenom was the first antibody therapy humans developed.
Venom is basically peptides (short chains of amino acids that are not long enough to be called proteins). Venoms tend to be very antigenic. Antigenic means they stimulate a B cell response. B cells make antibodies.
To make an antivenom, then, you inject an animal with the venom. The animal raises antibodies to the venom. These antibodies bind and sequester the venom. You can then collect the serum of the animal. The antibodies can be purified from the serum.
By injecting the antibodies in someone’s blood, the antibodies find the venom, bind to it, and sequester it. They can also tag the venom for the immune system to degrade.
As a note, this isn’t how old antivenoms were made or how new antivenoms are made. Old antivenoms were just the serum of the animal, which was pretty bad to inject in humans. New antivenoms are “humanized” to prevent negative reactions to foreign antibodies.
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