Fig. 5. Dermal lesions induced by distinct snake venoms are inhibited by drug combinations containing an SVMP and a PLA₂ inhibitor.

Individual mice were ID injected with B. asper (150 µg), C. atrox (100 µg), or E. ocellatus (39 µg) venom or venom vehicle control (PBS) that had been pre-incubated with drug vehicle control (98.48% PBS, 1.52% DMSO; Veh), DMPS (110 µg; D), marimastat (60 µg; M), varespladib (19 µg; V), DMPS & varespladib (110 and 19 µg, respectively; DV), or marimastat & varespladib (60 and 19 µg, respectively; MV). After 72 hours^† the mice were euthanised and their lesions excised, height and width measured with callipers, and photographed. a Representative images of the lesions resulting from each treatment group (black scale bar represents 3 mm). Bar graphs summarising the average total lesion areas for each drug treatment group when pre-incubated with b venom vehicle control (PBS), c B. asper, d C. atrox, or (e) E. ocellatus venom. † Signifies that these mice were culled at 24 h instead of the usual 72 h, due to their external lesions progressing to the maximum permitted size defined in our animal ethics licence, thus resulting in early euthanasia. * Signifies that value is significantly different than that of the drug vehicle control for that venom as determined by a one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test (P < 0.05, n = 4 [c{M}, d{Veh}] or 5 [b{all}, c{Veh, D, V, DV, MV}, d{D, M, V, DV, MV}, e{all}] biologically independent animals). ANOVA statistics for individual statistically analysed graphs are: b F(5,24) = 1.000, P = 0.4389, c F(5,23) = 8.808, P = 0.000088; d F(5,23) = 28.80, P = 0.0000000035; e F(5,24) = 6.587, P = 0.0005. Data are presented as mean values ± SD and the individual values for each lesion are shown as points within each of the bars. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.