Antidote


An antidote is a substance that can counteract a form of poisoning. The term ultimately derives from the Greek term φάρμακον ἀντίδοτον antidoton, " given as a remedy". Antidotes for anticoagulants are sometimes referred to as reversal agents.
The antidotes for some particular toxins are manufactured by injecting the toxin into an animal in small doses and extracting the resulting antibodies from the host animals' blood. This results in an antivenom that can be used to counteract venom produced by certain species of snakes, spiders, and other venomous animals. Some animal venoms, especially those produced by arthropods are only potentially lethal when they provoke allergic reactions and induce anaphylactic shock; as such, there is no "antidote" for these venoms; however anaphylactic shock can be treated.
Some other toxins have no known antidote. For example, the poison aconitine - a highly poisonous alkaloid derived from various aconite species - has no antidote, and as a result, is often fatal if it enters the human body in sufficient quantities.

Mechanical approaches

Ingested poisons are frequently treated by the oral administration of activated charcoal, which absorbs the poison and flushes it from the digestive tract, thereby removing a large part of the toxin.
Poisons which are injected into the body are usually treated by the use of a constriction band which limits the flow of lymph and/or blood to the area, thus slowing the circulation of the poison around the body. This should not be confused with the use of a tourniquet which cuts off blood flow completely - often leading to the loss of the limb.

Techniques to identify antidotes

In early 2019, a group of researchers in Australia published the finding of a new box jellyfish venom antidote using CRISPR. The technology had been used to functionally inactivate genes in human cell lines and identify the peripheral membrane protein ATP2B1, a calcium transporting ATPase, as one host factor required for box jellyfish venom cytotoxicity.

List of antidotes