1. Biochemical characterization of the Micrurus pyrrhocryptus venom
- Author
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Sergio del Canto, Mirtha Biscoglio de Jiménez Bonino, Sabrina E. Vinzón, and José Christian Dokmetjian
- Subjects
food.ingredient ,Molecular Sequence Data ,Neurotoxins ,Argentina ,Venom ,Hemorrhage ,Receptors, Nicotinic ,Toxicology ,complex mixtures ,Mass Spectrometry ,Lethal Dose 50 ,Mice ,food ,Neurotoxin ,Animals ,Micrurus ,Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional ,Amino Acid Sequence ,Elapidae ,Envenomation ,Coral snake ,Skin ,Elapid Venoms ,biology ,Base Sequence ,Muscles ,Anatomy ,Sequence Analysis, DNA ,Haemolysis ,biology.organism_classification ,Rats ,Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ,Biochemistry ,Snake venom ,Chromatography, Liquid - Abstract
Snake venom toxicity is the consequence of a combination of peptides and proteins whose identification and characterization are of great importance to understand envenomation and develop new clinical treatments. The Elapinae subfamily includes coral snakes whose bite causes mainly neurotoxic effects which disable muscle contraction and paralyse the heart as well as inhibit respiration. However, the structure–function relationship of venom toxins has been investigated only for a few species. We herein study biological aspects of the Micrurus pyrrhocryptus venom such as LD 50 , hemorrhagic, necrotic, coagulant, myotoxic and hemolytic activity as well as the ability of venom components to compete with alpha-Bungarotoxin for the ligand-binding site of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Besides, we report the determination of the molecular mass and N-terminal sequence of toxins including PLA2s, short, long and weak neurotoxins. The complete sequence of one of the short neurotoxins has also been obtained, this being the first sequence of an alpha-neurotoxin determined in the M. pyrrhocryptus venom and one of the few fully determined in members of the Micrurus genus.
- Published
- 2008