1. A new anti-loxoscelic serum produced against recombinant sphingomyelinase D: results of preclinical trials.
- Author
-
de Almeida DM, Fernandes-Pedrosa Mde F, de Andrade RM, Marcelino JR, Gondo-Higashi H, de Azevedo Ide L, Ho PL, van den Berg C, and Tambourgi DV
- Subjects
- Animals, Cells, Cultured, Cross Reactions, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Erythrocytes drug effects, Horses, Humans, Immunochemistry, Neutralization Tests, Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases metabolism, Rabbits, Recombinant Proteins antagonists & inhibitors, Recombinant Proteins immunology, Recombinant Proteins metabolism, Spider Venoms enzymology, Spider Venoms immunology, Spiders enzymology, Spiders metabolism, Antivenins pharmacology, Phosphoric Diester Hydrolases immunology, Spider Bites therapy, Spider Venoms antagonists & inhibitors
- Abstract
Envenomation by Loxosceles species (brown spider) can lead to local dermonecrosis and to serious systemic effects. The main toxic component in the venom of these spiders is sphingomyelinase D (SMase D) and various isoforms of this toxin are present in Loxosceles venoms. We have produced a new anti-loxoscelic serum by immunizing horses with recombinant SMase D. In the present study, we compared the neutralization efficacy of the new anti-loxoscelic serum and anti-arachnidic serum (the latter serum is used for therapy for loxoscelism in Brazil) against the toxic effects of venoms from spiders of the genus Loxosceles. Neutralization tests showed that anti-SMase D serum has a higher activity against toxic effects of L. intermedia and L. laeta venoms and similar or slightly weaker activity against toxic effects of L. gaucho than that of Arachnidic serum. These results demonstrate that recombinant SMase D can replace venom for anti-venom production and therapy.
- Published
- 2008