African adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three Bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms.
BACKGROUND:An alarming number of fatal accidents involving snakes are annually reported in Africa and most of the victims suffer from permanent local tissue damage and chronic disabilities. Envenomation by snakes belonging to the genus Bitis, Viperidae family, are common in Sub-Saharan Africa. The a...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:48e5a801e59743a8ba3826071056e2fc 2023-05-15T15:16:52+02:00 African adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three Bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms. Danielle Paixão-Cavalcante Alexandre K Kuniyoshi Fernanda C V Portaro Wilmar Dias da Silva Denise V Tambourgi 2015-02-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003419 https://doaj.org/article/48e5a801e59743a8ba3826071056e2fc EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4340965?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0003419 https://doaj.org/article/48e5a801e59743a8ba3826071056e2fc PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 9, Iss 2, p e0003419 (2015) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003419 2022-12-30T21:57:33Z BACKGROUND:An alarming number of fatal accidents involving snakes are annually reported in Africa and most of the victims suffer from permanent local tissue damage and chronic disabilities. Envenomation by snakes belonging to the genus Bitis, Viperidae family, are common in Sub-Saharan Africa. The accidents are severe and the victims often have a poor prognosis due to the lack of effective specific therapies. In this study we have biochemically characterized venoms from three different species of Bitis, i.e., Bitis arietans, Bitis gabonica rhinoceros and Bitis nasicornis, involved in the majority of the human accidents in Africa, and analyzed the in vitro neutralizing ability of two experimental antivenoms. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:The data indicate that all venoms presented phospholipase, hyaluronidase and fibrinogenolytic activities and cleaved efficiently the FRET substrate Abz-RPPGFSPFRQ-EDDnp and angiotensin I, generating angiotensin 1-7. Gelatinolytic activity was only observed in the venoms of B. arietans and B. nasicornis. The treatment of the venoms with protease inhibitors indicated that Bitis venoms possess metallo and serinoproteases enzymes, which may be involved in the different biological activities here evaluated. Experimental antivenoms produced against B. arietans venom or Bitis g. rhinoceros plus B. nasicornis venoms cross-reacted with the venoms from the three species and blocked, in different degrees, all the enzymatic activities in which they were tested. CONCLUSION:These results suggest that the venoms of the three Bitis species, involved in accidents with humans in the Sub-Saharan Africa, contain a mixture of various enzymes that may act in the generation and development of some of the clinical manifestations of the envenomations. We also demonstrated that horse antivenoms produced against B. arietans or B. g. rhinoceros plus B. nasicornis venoms can blocked some of the toxic activities of these venoms. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 9 2 e0003419 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Danielle Paixão-Cavalcante Alexandre K Kuniyoshi Fernanda C V Portaro Wilmar Dias da Silva Denise V Tambourgi African adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three Bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
BACKGROUND:An alarming number of fatal accidents involving snakes are annually reported in Africa and most of the victims suffer from permanent local tissue damage and chronic disabilities. Envenomation by snakes belonging to the genus Bitis, Viperidae family, are common in Sub-Saharan Africa. The accidents are severe and the victims often have a poor prognosis due to the lack of effective specific therapies. In this study we have biochemically characterized venoms from three different species of Bitis, i.e., Bitis arietans, Bitis gabonica rhinoceros and Bitis nasicornis, involved in the majority of the human accidents in Africa, and analyzed the in vitro neutralizing ability of two experimental antivenoms. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:The data indicate that all venoms presented phospholipase, hyaluronidase and fibrinogenolytic activities and cleaved efficiently the FRET substrate Abz-RPPGFSPFRQ-EDDnp and angiotensin I, generating angiotensin 1-7. Gelatinolytic activity was only observed in the venoms of B. arietans and B. nasicornis. The treatment of the venoms with protease inhibitors indicated that Bitis venoms possess metallo and serinoproteases enzymes, which may be involved in the different biological activities here evaluated. Experimental antivenoms produced against B. arietans venom or Bitis g. rhinoceros plus B. nasicornis venoms cross-reacted with the venoms from the three species and blocked, in different degrees, all the enzymatic activities in which they were tested. CONCLUSION:These results suggest that the venoms of the three Bitis species, involved in accidents with humans in the Sub-Saharan Africa, contain a mixture of various enzymes that may act in the generation and development of some of the clinical manifestations of the envenomations. We also demonstrated that horse antivenoms produced against B. arietans or B. g. rhinoceros plus B. nasicornis venoms can blocked some of the toxic activities of these venoms. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Danielle Paixão-Cavalcante Alexandre K Kuniyoshi Fernanda C V Portaro Wilmar Dias da Silva Denise V Tambourgi |
author_facet |
Danielle Paixão-Cavalcante Alexandre K Kuniyoshi Fernanda C V Portaro Wilmar Dias da Silva Denise V Tambourgi |
author_sort |
Danielle Paixão-Cavalcante |
title |
African adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three Bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms. |
title_short |
African adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three Bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms. |
title_full |
African adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three Bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms. |
title_fullStr |
African adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three Bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms. |
title_full_unstemmed |
African adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three Bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms. |
title_sort |
african adders: partial characterization of snake venoms from three bitis species of medical importance and their neutralization by experimental equine antivenoms. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003419 https://doaj.org/article/48e5a801e59743a8ba3826071056e2fc |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 9, Iss 2, p e0003419 (2015) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4340965?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0003419 https://doaj.org/article/48e5a801e59743a8ba3826071056e2fc |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003419 |
container_title |
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
e0003419 |
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1766347165984096256 |