Abstract
The intravenous administration of polyclonal antibodies known as antivenom is the only effective treatment for snakebite envenomed victims, but because of inter-specific variation in the toxic components of snake venoms, these therapies have variable efficacies against different snake species and/or different populations of the same species. In this study, we sought to characterize the in vitro venom binding capability and in vitro cross-neutralizing activity of antivenom, specifically the Hemato Polyvalent antivenom (HPAV; The Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute (QSMI) of the Thai Red Cross Society, Thailand) and three monovalent antivenoms (QSMI) specific to Daboia siamensis, Calloselasma rhodostoma, and Trimeresurus albolabris venoms, against a variety of South Asian and Southeast Asian viper venoms (Calloselasma rhodostoma, Daboia russelii, Hypnale hypnale, Trimeresurus albolabris, Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus, Trimeresurus hageni, and Trimeresurus fucatus). Using ELISA and immunoblotting approaches, we find that the majority of protein components in the viper venoms were recognized and bound by the HPAV polyvalent antivenom, while the monospecific antivenom made against T. albolabris extensively recognized toxins present in the venom of related species, T. purpureomaculatus, T. hageni, and T. fucatus. In vitro coagulation assays using bovine plasma revealed similar findings, with HPAV antivenom significantly inhibiting the coagulopathic activities of all tested viper venoms and T. albolabris antivenom inhibiting the venoms from Malaysian arboreal pit vipers. We also show that the monovalent C. rhodostoma antivenom exhibits highly comparable levels of immunological binding and in vitro venom neutralization to venom from both Thailand and Malaysia, despite previous reports of considerable intraspecific venom variation. Our findings suggest that Thai antivenoms from QSMI may by useful therapeutics for managing snake envenomings caused by a number of Southeast Asian viper species and populations for which no specific antivenom currently exists and thus should be explored further to assess their clinical utility in treating snakebite victims.
Highlights
Snakebite envenoming is an environmental, occupational, and climatic hazard that predominantly affects the rural, impoverished populations of low- and middle-income countries found in the tropics.The highest burden of snakebite exists in agricultural regions of Asia (i.e., South Asia and SoutheastAsia), Papua New Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America [1]
We first assessed the ability of the various antivenoms to recognize and bind to the components present in a variety of pit viper venoms by ELISA (Table 1 and Figure 1)
The snake species tested from Malaysia were C. rhodostoma (Malayan pit viper), T. hageni (Hagen’s pit viper), T. purpureomaculatus (Mangrove pit viper), and T
Summary
Snakebite envenoming is an environmental, occupational, and climatic hazard that predominantly affects the rural, impoverished populations of low- and middle-income countries found in the tropics.The highest burden of snakebite exists in agricultural regions of Asia (i.e., South Asia and SoutheastAsia), Papua New Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America [1]. The highest burden of snakebite exists in agricultural regions of Asia There are two viper subfamilies, Viperinae (true vipers; e.g., Russell’s vipers) and Crotalinae (pit vipers; e.g., green pit viper, Malayan pit viper), with the latter named after their specialized sensory organ, the loreal pit, which detects infrared [4]. Human envenoming by both viper subfamilies may result in life-threatening outcomes, including disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, severe hemorrhage, and nephrotoxicity [4,5]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
