Open AccessINTRASPECIFIC VARIATION IN NEUROTOXIC AND MYOTOXIC ACTIVITIES OF Bothrops neuwiedii VENOMS
Author(s) -
Caroline Oliveira,
Andreimar Martins Soares,
Stella Regina Zamunér,
Stephen Hyslop,
José Roberto Giglio,
J. Prado-Franceschi,
Léa RodriguesSimioni
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the journal of venomous animals and toxins/the journal of venomous animals and toxins
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1678-4936
pISSN - 0104-7930
DOI - 10.1590/s0104-79302002000100008
Subject(s) - bothrops , venom , acetylcholine , chemistry , intraspecific competition , ophidia , pharmacology , toxicology , biology , snake venom , biochemistry , zoology
Snake venoms frequently vary in composition. In this work, we compared the neurotoxic and myotoxic activities of 16 lots of Bothrops neuwiedii venoms from different regions of Brazil, using chick biventer cervicis preparations. The neuromuscular blockade varied from 2% to 100% after 120 min incubation with venoms (50 mug/ml). In all cases, this blockade was irreversible and concentration-dependent; at low concentrations (10-20 mug/ml), 15 of the 16 venom lots failed to abolish responses to acetylcholine (110 muM), but blocked responses to KCl (13.4 muM), and induced contracture. At 5-20 mug/ml, the most active venom totally blocked twitch-tension without affecting responses to acetylcholine and KCl. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for basic proteins showed that the most active samples contained a band that was absent in the less active venoms. These results indicate that there may be considerable intraspecific variation in the neurotoxic activity of B. neuwiedii venoms, whereas myotoxic activity is less variable