Fibrinolytic and fibrinogen clotting enzymes present in the venoms of western diamondback rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox, eastern diamondback rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus, and southern pacific rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis helleri

Abstract

Crotalus adamenteus and C. viridis helleri have both fibrinolytic and fibrinogen clotting activities, whereas C. atrox has strong fibrinolytic activity but no detectable fibrinogen clotting activity. Fractionation of crude venom on Sephadex G-100 revealed that C. atrox has two separate fibrinolytic activities with mol. wts of 60,000 and 21,500. C. adamanteus has fibrinolytic and fibrinogen clotting activities that co-elute in the mol. wt region of 35,000. C. viridis helleri contains fibrinolytic activity with mol. wt of 21,500 and fibrinogen clotting activity with a mol. wt of 92,000. Since there is clinical interest in the possible therapeutic application of fibrinolytic and defibrinogenating agents in certain medical disorders which involve fibrin deposition, it will be of value to study enzymes with fibrinolytic and thrombin-like activity from venoms of snakes indigenous to the North American continent.