Abstract
Coral snakes of the genus Micrurus have a high diversity and wide distribution in the Americas. Despite envenomings by these animals being uncommon, accidents are often severe and may result in death. Producing an antivenom to treat these envenomings has been challenging since coral snakes are difficult to catch, produce small amounts of venom, and the antivenoms produced have shown limited cross neutralization. Here we present data of cross neutralization among monovalent antivenoms raised against M. dumerilii, M. isozonus, M. mipartitus and M. surinamensis and the development of a new polyvalent coral snake antivenom, resulting from the mix of monovalent antivenoms. Our results, show that this coral snake antivenom has high neutralizing potency and wide taxonomic coverage, constituting a possible alternative for a long sought Pan-American coral snake antivenom.
Highlights
Coral snakes are distributed in the Americas form Southern United States to Argentina
The antivenoms currently produced to treat accidents caused by these snakes have limitations regarding the number of species venoms they could neutralize
The neurotoxic activity of coral snake venoms is mainly due to the presence of non-enzymatic competitive inhibitors of acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction known as α-neurotoxins of the three-finger (3FTx) protein superfamily and phospholipase A2 (PLA2) enzymes with pre-synaptic activity [5]
Summary
The neurotoxic activity of coral snake venoms is mainly due to the presence of non-enzymatic competitive inhibitors of acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction known as α-neurotoxins of the three-finger (3FTx) protein superfamily and phospholipase A2 (PLA2) enzymes with pre-synaptic activity [5]. These two components have been revealed as the most abundant components in Micrurus venoms and vary in their proportion according to the species [5,6]. These aspects constitute serious setbacks for gathering sufficient amounts of venom for the production of coral snake antivenoms [11]
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