antitoxins

[didymocarpus]

what are antitoxins? how do they differ from antibiotics?

[Darby]

Just look at the words. Antibiotics are poisons aimed at some sort of living thing, usually bacteria. Antitoxins are aimed at poisons themselves. Both groups get the jobs done in a variety of ways. Snake antivenom, for instance, is often antibodies (from horses exposed to small amounts of venom) that bind the venom molecules so they don't function anymore.