DRUG REPURPOSING FOR SNAKE BITE: AN INSILICO INVESTIGATION

Snake bite is a major neglected public health issue within poor communities living in rural areas of several countries throughout the world. An estimated 2.5 million people are bitten by snakes each year and the cost and lack of efficacy of current anti-venom therapy together with the lack of detailed knowledge about toxic components of venom and their modes of action, and the unavailability of treatment in rural areas mean that annually there are around 125,000 deaths worldwide. In other to develop cheaper and more effective therapeutics, the toxic components of snake venom and their modes of action need to be clearly understood. One particularly poorly understood component of snake venom is phospholipase A2. These are enzymes which in mammals are involved in vascular inflammation correlating with coronary events in coronary artery disease and acute coronary syndrome and possibly leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome. Although phospholipase A2 activities have been reported in some snake venoms, no detailed analysis of any individual snake venom phospholipase A2 has been performed so far. Through the use of docking process, a tool in Insilico investigation, already approved drugs were tested for binding affinity to the active site of snake phospholipase A2, to detect which can be used to inhibit snake phospholipase A2. 25 of the sampled drugs exhibits higher affinity than the control (lupeol), thus, considered having anti-venom properties as such recommended for integration into health care. KeywordsDrug, Repurposing, Snake bite, insilico