Techniques applicable for purifying Chironex fleckeri (box-jellyfish) venom.

A survey of several techniques to isolate a purified lethal factor from the tentacles of Chironex fleckeri was completed. Heterologous band patterns were obtained from specific eluates after gel filtration, ion exchange, immunoaffinity and hydrophobic chromatography. SDS-PAGE revealed a dense band at 24,000 mol. wt in many of these fractions. Isoelectric focusing of the crude venom resulted in considerable loss of activity but indicated significant purification in the fractions having a pI of 5.2-6.8. These fractions were also immunologically active against sera from a convalescing post-evenomation patient. The primary difficulties encountered in jellyfish venom purification are the lack of stability and the tendency of the active toxins to adhere to each other and to various support matrices.