Scientists say they are a step closer to developing an antivenom to counteract toxins from the box jellyfish, which delivers the world’s deadliest jellyfish sting.
Scientists from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute say ground-breaking research has uncovered new toxins inside the venom of box jellyfish.
More than 60 people have died from box jellyfish stings in Australia, but there has never been any research into what causes such severe reactions.
Institute spokesman Dr Jason Mulvenna said scientists took samples from jellyfish venom and searched its contents against a database of proteins.
“We found a lot of proteins that we find in other venoms, like snakes and spiders, but we also found a large group of proteins that haven’t been identified anywhere else that seem to be unique to jellyfish, and particularly the box jellyfish,” he said.
Dr Mulvenna said the breakthrough meant scientists could now work on an antivenom.
“This is the easy bit – now we’ve got to work out what each of these proteins are doing, how it interacts with the body, and how we can abate that effect and help people who’ve been stung,” he said.
“We now have all the information we need to move on with analysing what each of these proteins does.
“It lays the groundwork for future work.”
Box jelly victims would need antivenom immediately
Box jellyfish are difficult to spot in the ocean, which means swimmers in north Queensland must stay inside in stinger nets between the months of November and May when the animals are most common.
Fatalities are not common in sting victims but contact with jellyfish tentacles causes severe pain and requires immediate hospitalisation.
More than 30 people were stung by different types of box jellyfish at beaches near Mackay, Townsville and Cairns in the most recent stinger season, which ended a fortnight ago.
Surf Life Saving North Queensland regional manager Colin Sparkes said an antivenom would need be to immediately accessible once a person was stung.
“Once a person has been stung they’ve been stung – you’ve got one to two minutes to act,” he said.
“One man was stung at Pallarenda a couple of years ago – that was a major sting.
“There happened to be an off-duty nurse on the beach who could perform CPR – she saved his life.
“At the end of the day, if it is box jellyfish season, our advice is stay in the netted swimming areas.”
Dr Mulvenna said the research team believed it could develop an antivenom but said it would take time.
“We still don’t have a genome, so there’s probably errors in the assembly that we made to indentify proteins, so we’re working on getting a genome done now and that will refine our results,” he said.
“You’re always confident it will take a shorter period than it actually does, but maybe five or 10 years or even less, if we’re lucky.”