Immunological Cross-Reactivity and Preclinical Assessment of a Colombian Anticoral Antivenom against the Venoms of Three Micrurus Species

• Published in: Toxins Vol. 16; no. 2; p. 104
• Main Authors: Rodríguez-Vargas, Ariadna, Franco-Vásquez, Adrián Marcelo, Triana-Cerón, Miguel, Alam-Rojas, Shaha Noor, Escobar-Wilches, Derly C., Corzo, Gerardo, Lazcano-Pérez, Fernando, Arreguín-Espinosa, Roberto, Ruiz-Gómez, Francisco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.02.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Affinity chromatography; Antisera; Antivenins; Antivenom; antivenoms; Bites and stings; Care and treatment; Composition; Cross-reactivity; Effectiveness; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Immunoassays; Immunogenicity; Immunology; Immunoreactivity; immunorecognition; Micrurus medemi; Micrurus sangilensis; Micrurus sp; Molecular weight; Neutralization; Patient outcomes; Pattern recognition; Protein composition; Proteins; Snake bites; snake venoms; Venom; Venom toxins; Colombia; antivenoms; immunorecognition; Micrurus sp; snake venoms; neutralization
• ISSN: 2072-6651; 2072-6651
• DOI: 10.3390/toxins16020104

Snakebite accident treatment requires the administration of antivenoms that provide efficacy and effectiveness against several snake venoms of the same genus or family. The low number of immunogenic components in venom mixtures that allow the production of antivenoms consequently gives them partial neutralization and a suboptimal pharmacological response. This study evaluates the immunorecognition and neutralizing efficacy of the polyvalent anticoral antivenom from the Instituto Nacional de Salud (INS) of Colombia against the heterologous endemic venoms of Micrurus medemi, and M. sangilensis, and M. helleri by assessing immunoreactivity through affinity chromatography, ELISA, Western blot, and neutralization capability. Immunorecognition towards the venoms of M. medemi and M. sangilensis showed values of 62% and 68% of the protein composition according to the immunoaffinity matrix, respectively. The analysis by Western blot depicted the highest recognition patterns for M. medemi, followed by M. sangilensis, and finally by M. helleri. These findings suggest that the venom compositions are closely related and exhibit similar recognition by the antivenom. According to enzyme immunoassays, M. helleri requires a higher amount of antivenom to achieve recognition than the others. Besides reinforcing the evaluation of INS antivenom capability, this work recommends the use of M. helleri in the production of Colombian antisera.