Abstract

DE ROODT, Adolfo Rafael et al. Snake Antivenin: Comparison Between Two Production Methods. Acta toxicol. argent. [online]. 2010, vol.18, n.1, pp.10-20. ISSN 1851-3743.

Bites by venomous snakes are a serious medical problem in several regions of the world, on which the different health systems act with different modalities. Nevertheless, the treatment of venomous snakebites in domestic animals can turn diffcult due several problems among which, the conspicuous, is the low availability or lack of antivenoms for veterinary use. As commercial pressures on the pharmaceutical industry have led to a reduction in the production of antivenins in several parts of the world, their availability is sometimes rather limited and sometimes these products are impossible to obtain. In this work, we immunized horses with venom of South American vipers to obtain hyperimmune plasma. The plasma was processed to separate whole IgG of F(ab´)₂ fragments using two conventional methods (caprylic acid fractionation or double saline precipitation and pepsin digestion). The obtained antivenins were tested for their biochemical and immunochemical characteristics and neutralizing potency. The SDS-PAGE of the antivenins showed, in the processed antivenin, bands in the order of 150 and 100 kDa in the whole IgG or F(ab´)₂ fragments, respectively. The presence of albumin or contaminants of high or low molecular weight was not detected in any of the preparations. No important differences were observed in the neutralizing potency of the antivenins, although production cost was very low with the method used to obtain pure IgG. The low production cost makes the production of antivenins for veterinary use proftable when the production of F(ab´)₂ fragments is not possible.

Keywords : Snake; Antivenin; Venom; Caprylic acid.

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