A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala

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  A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala Abstract  A new species of the spider genus Euagrus Ausserer, 1875 from temperate pine-oak forests in the states of Tlaxcala and Hidalgo, Mexico is described: E. pulque sp. nov. The description of the new species is based on male and female adult specimens. Additionally, Euagrus gus Coyle, 1988 is recorded for the very first time in the state of Tlaxcala. These species have sympatric distributions in La Malinche National Park, Tlaxcala. With this description, the diversity of the genus increases to 23 species, with Mexico harboring the highest diversity with 17 described species.  Valdez-Mondragón, A., Salinas-Velasco, H. V. & Bueno-Villegas, J. (2026). A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala. Zootaxa 5810 (...

Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites

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Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites

Abstract

Each year, snakebite envenoming claims thousands of lives and causes severe injury to victims across sub-Saharan Africa, many of whom depend on antivenoms derived from animal plasma as their sole treatment option1. Traditional antivenoms are expensive, can cause adverse immunological reactions, offer limited efficacy against local tissue damage and are often ineffective against all medically relevant snake species2. There is thus an urgent unmet medical need for innovation in snakebite envenoming therapy. However, developing broad-spectrum treatments is highly challenging owing to the vast diversity of venomous snakes and the complex and variable composition of their venoms3. Here we addressed this challenge by immunizing an alpaca and a llama with the venoms of 18 different snakes, including mambas, cobras and a rinkhals, constructing phage display libraries, and identifying high-affinity broadly neutralizing nanobodies. We combined eight of these nanobodies into a defined oligoclonal mixture, resulting in an experimental polyvalent recombinant antivenom that was capable of neutralizing seven toxin families or subfamilies. This antivenom effectively prevented venom-induced lethality in vivo across 17 African elapid snake species and markedly reduced venom-induced dermonecrosis for all tested cytotoxic venoms. The recombinant antivenom performed better than a currently used plasma-derived antivenom and therefore shows considerable promise for comprehensive, continent-wide protection against snakebites by all medically relevant African elapids.

Ahmadi, S., Burlet, N. J., Kerwin, S., Cardoso, I. A., Marriott, A. E., Edge, R. J., Crittenden, E., L., M., Nguyen, G. T., Wouters, Y., Kalogeropoulos, K., Thumtecho, S., Ebersole, T. W., Dahl, C. H., U., E., Jansen, T., Boddum, K., Manousaki, E., Ward, A. B., . . . Laustsen, A. H. (2025). Nanobody-based recombinant antivenom for cobra, mamba and rinkhals bites. Nature, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09661-0