PURIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PROCOAGULANT OF THE VENOM OF TROPIDECHIS CARINATUS

Abstract

Tropidechis carinatus is a venomous elapid snake distributed throughout Eastern Queensland. It has been considered as a tropical relative of Notechis scutatus and, similarly, the crude venom contains an indirect prothrombin activator, which will clot plasma provided that Factor V is present. Myotoxins and neurotoxins are also present. Envenomated patients regularly develop disseminated intravascular coagulation. The crude whole venom of T.carinatus was shown to have five major components by gel filtration, SDS PAGE and HPLC, and even more components by isoelectric focusing. The procoagulant eluted with a molecular weight of 55,000, being found in peak II on gel filtration on Sephadex-G150. The procoagulant was purified using a combination of Sephadex-G150 chromatography and ion-exchange on DEAE Sephadex-A50 and shown to migrate as a single band of molecular weight 55.000 by SDS PAGE. On reduction by β -mercaptoethanol this component was resolvec into u heavy chain of molecular weight 30.000 and a light chain of 25,000. The procoagulant was shown to bind to con A-Sepharose 4B and Blue Sepharose 4B. Coagulation studies using this purified procoagulant confirmed a factor Xa-like activity activating prothrombin in the presence of factor V. The purified fraction is unstable in buffer solutions at 4°C, probably because of trypsin - like autodigestion. Ouchterlony studies of the procoagulants of T.carinatus and N.scutatus show both lines of homogeneity and spurring, indicating similarities but also significant differences between the two proteins. The purified procoagulant was lethal to adult rats, an IV injection of 10 μg killing in 1 - 2 minutes. Death was prevented by prior heparinization, suggesting that the procoagulant is toxic in the absence of neurotoxin and other components.