Nanosponges Absorb Toxins in the Blood: New Potential to Treat Snake Bites (Video)

There may be a new way to treat poisonous bites and toxins that are produced by E. coli. Researchers have developed a "nanosponge" that's capable of safely removing a broad class of dangerous toxins from the bloodstream.

The nanosponges have the ability to destroy cells by poking holes in their cell membranes. Unlike other anti-toxins that have to be specially synthesized for individual toxins, though, this new creation can instead absorb different pore-forming toxins regardless of their structures.

Red blood cells are one of the primary targets of toxins. A group of toxins can puncture the same cell, forming a pore which causes an uncontrolled rush of ions to enter the cell. This causes the cell to die. Since the nanosponges can travel through the bloodstream, they can act as blood cell decoys and instead collect the toxins.

You would think that the immune system would fight back against these foreign nanosponge bodies, but researchers found a way around that problem. The nanosponges are wrapped in red blood cell membranes, which act as an effective cloaking mechanism that can "fool" white blood cells. This particular technology has been used before to disguise nanoparticles that can deliver cancer-fighting drugs directly to a tumor.

So how effective are these nanosponges? Based on test-tube experiments, the number of toxins each nanosponge could absorb largely depending on the toxin. For example, it could absorb approximately 850 melittin monomoers, which are part of bee venom. However, it could only absorbe 30 stretpolysin-O toxins.

That said, these nanosponges could have large implications for the treatment of snakes bites in the future. Because they don't have to be specifically tailored to a particular kind of toxin, they could provide life-saving treatments that are available immediately to at-risk individuals when they need them most.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Want to see a video of these nanosponges in action? Check it out here.