Céard B, De Lima M E, Bougis P E, Martin-Eauclaire M F
Laboratoir de Biochimie, U.R.A. 1455 du C.N.R.S., Faculté de Médecine Secteur Nord, Marseille, France.
Toxicon. 1992 Jan;30(1):105-10. doi: 10.1016/0041-0101(92)90506-z.
The venom of the Brazilian scorpion Tityus serrulatus was fractionated using high-performance liquid chromatography which allowed us to purify in two steps the main beta-type toxin of the venom. The toxin constituted about 15% of the absorbance at 280 nm and 50% of the toxicity of the venom. According to its amino acid content, its electrophoretic migration on Phast-Gel homogenous 20 and its biological properties both in vivo by intracerebroventricular injection to the mouse (LD50 = 30 ng/kg mouse) and in vitro by competition receptor assay on rat brain synaptosomes (K0.5 = 80 pM), the toxin was identified as toxin Ts VII already purified from the same venom using low-pressure liquid chromatography (BECHIS et al., 1984 Biochem. biophys. Res. Commun. 122, 1146). The high-performance liquid chromatographic technique used improved by a factor of four the amount of toxin purified.
