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. 1994 Jul;112(3):723–727. doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.1994.tb13137.x

Pro-inflammatory activities in elapid snake venoms.

D V Tambourgi 1, M C dos Santos 1, M de F Furtado 1, M C de Freitas 1, W D da Silva 1, T L Kipnis 1
PMCID: PMC1910224  PMID: 7921595

Abstract

1. Snake venoms from the genera Micrurus (M. ibiboboca and M. spixii) and Naja (N. naja, N. melanoleuca and N. nigricollis) were analysed, using biological and immunochemical methods, to detect pro-inflammatory activities, cobra venom factor (COF), proteolytic enzymes, thrombin-like substances, haemorrhagic and oedema-producing substances. 2. The venoms of the five snake species activate the complement system (C) in normal human serum (NHS) in a dose-related fashion, at concentrations ranging from 5 micrograms to 200 micrograms ml-1 serum. Electrophoretic conversion of C3 was observed with all venoms in NHS containing normal concentrations of Ca2+ and Mg2+, but only by venoms from N. naja and N. melanoleuca when Ca2+ was chelated by adding Mg(2+)-EGTA. 3. Purified human C3 was electrophoretically converted, in the absence of other C components, by the venoms from N. naja, N. nigricollis and M. ibiboboca. However, only the venoms from N. naja and N. melanoleuca contained a 144 kDa protein revealed in Western blot with sera against COF or human C3. 4. All venoms, at minimum concentrations of 30 ng ml-1, were capable of lysing sheep red blood cells, also in a dose-related fashion, when incubated with these cells in presence of egg yolk as a source of lecithin. Although the venoms from M. spixii and N. nigricollis showed detectable thrombin-like activity, these and the other venoms were free of proteolytic activity when fibrin, gelatin and casein, were used as substrates. 5. When tested on mice skin, all five venoms were capable of inducing an increase in vascular permeability and oedema, but were devoid of haemorrhagic producing substances (haemorrhagins).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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