Study of phospholipase A2 inhibitors in serum of snakes from the herpetology laboratory of Institute Butantan

Abstract

A complex mixture of venomous venom components is mostly composed of proteins, which are primarily responsible for their toxicity. It is known that many venomous and non-venomous snakes have mechanisms of natural inhibition against envenomation in their blood, corresponding to the proteins that inhibit certain toxins present their venoms. In addition to snakes, some mammals also have similar mechanism of inhibition. Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is an important component of snake venom. It is found in great abundance, mainly in viperid venoms , and its action contributes to the pharmaceutical and pathophysiological effects in prey, mainly in related to the local signs, such as inflammation and myotoxicity. These are not well neutralised with the antiofidic serum, the main treatment in case of accidents with venomous snakes. PLA2 inhibitors (PLIs) have been found in snake serum acting in different types of mechanisms, many of them are not yet known, such as: denaturation, binding to specific domains, amino acid residue specific modification, among others. The PLIs present in the blood of snakes can be characterized, structurally in: ±, ² and ³, and each of the classes have specific targets and mechanisms of inhibition. Thus, in order to contribute to the elucidation of the mechanism of inhibition of snakes against envenomation and, especially, to obtain molecules that can help in the treatment of local symptoms caused by human and animal snake accidents, the aim of this study is to identify PLIs in the serum of different species of snakes maintained in the Laboratory of Herpetology of Butantan Institute. (AU)