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To make himself resistant against poisonous serpent , the paranoid Pontic King Mithridates is rumored to have rent small everyday doses of venom .

Scientists think they might have discovered an easier way .

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New Gallery: Snakes of the World

Immune cells responsible for the fluid noses and itchy eyes associate withasthmaandallergyattacks could help protect us against thevenomof certain snakes and insects , a raw subject show .

The finding overturn a established wisdom in music that theimmune systemexacerbates the effects of deadly bite and stings . The revised thought could lead to new antivenom treatments , the researchers say .

Mast cells release a extensive orbit of biological compounds that promote redness and other change to weave when triggered by parasites , bacteria or foreign heart and soul such as venom . In some people , they can be touch off by irritants such as pollen , causingallergicreactions .

Closeup of an Asian needle ant worker carrying prey in its mouth on a wooden surface.

Scientists previously thought that mast cellular phone energizing in response to chemicals in spitefulness made the bite and confidence game of snakes and insects worse . But the new study , detail in the July 28 issue of the journalScience , finds that a protein , telephone carboxypeptidase A and let go of by mast cells , actually helps break down maliciousness .

When exposed to mole viper venom , mice who had normal floor of mast cell could withstand 10 metre the dosage of spitefulness than computer mouse with no mast mobile phone . The gnawer demonstrate similar effect when tested with the venom of westerly diamondback rattlesnakes , southern Denisonia superba snakes and even a mintage of honeybee .

" The mast cellular telephone significantly limit not only the toxicity , but also the death rate associated with the malice , " said study team member Stephen Gail of the Stanford University School of Medicine .

a photo of the skin beginning to shed from a snake�s face

Snake bite carry vary measure of spite , and mast cell appear to be most helpful when the amount of venom drive home is below or near the lethal dose . The research worker are presently testing to see whether mast cellphone in humans respond in the same way as mouse mast cells do .

a close-up of a mosquito

Person holding a snakes head while using a pointed plastic object to reveal a fang.

a closeup of a deer tick

Sunda island pit viper ( Trimeresurus insularis ) on a branch. Photo taken in Jakarta.

This photo does NOT show the rattlesnakes under the California home. Here, four gravid timber rattlesnakes basking at rookery area near their den.

A golden tree snake (Chrysopelea ornata) is eating a butterfly lizard (Leiolepis belliana).

Florida snake

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Big Burmese python

Coiled Timber Rattlesnake, Crotalus horridus

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

a view of a tomb with scaffolding on it

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

A small phallic stalagmite is encircled by a 500-year-old bracelet carved from shell with Maya-like imagery

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an abstract illustration depicting the collision of subatomic particles