Abstract
Objective: Snake envenomation is common in tropical and subtropical countries of the Middle East areas including Iran. Cerastes cerastes gasperettii is a dangerous snake living in southwestern provinces of Iran. It causes massive edema at the bite site and coagulopathy leading to death if untreated. Methods: The purpose of this preliminary animal study was to evaluate the toxicity and proteomic of this venom for the first time in Iran. Moreover, the hemodynamic changes with intravenous injection of the venom were assessed and inotropic in addition to arrhythmogenic properties of this venom were investigated. Results: The estimated amount of the LD50 with intraperitoneal injection was slightly less than the similar experiment in Saudi Arabia (1.32 mg/kg versus 978 µg/kg body weight). There were 8 distinct protein bands between 12 and 66 kDa in SDS-PAGE analysis that were different with Moroccan experiment due to inter and intra species variation. Inotropic potencies were not significant since the lethal dose with intravenous injection was much lower than the Arabian experiment in guinea pigs (2.4 mg/kg versus 0.8 mg/kg). Conclusion: According to the low hemodynamic changes induced with the venom, it seems that coagulopathy and edema are the most dangerous effects of this rare snake in Iran.
Highlights
It is estimated that among 3000 known species of snakes all over the world, 27 are venomous and 11 are semivenomous spreading in Iran [1,2]
Hemorrhagic wounds at the bite site are the common manifestations accompanied with coagulopathy, which probably stem from the snake venom metalloproteinases like Cerastes cerastes matrix metalloproteinase II (CCMP-II) [8,9]
The results showed that the estimated amount of the LD50 of the venom with intraperitoneal injection was 1.32 mg/ kg body weight in mice
Summary
It is estimated that among 3000 known species of snakes all over the world, 27 are venomous and 11 are semivenomous spreading in Iran [1,2]. Cerastes cerastes gasperettii (C.cg), known as horned viper, belongs to the Viperidae family and is one of the most dangerous snakes of the sandy deserts like southwestern areas especially Khuzestan province [3]. This snake is the most common species in the Saudi Arabia and lives in Jordan, Egypt and Iraq as well [4,5]. It is noted that cardiac complications are not considered primarily in all snake envenomation, but they usually provoke detrimental effects in human being [10]
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