Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology & Innovation, Pan African University, Nairobi 00100, Kenya.
Department of Medical Laboratory Science, College of Health Sciences, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, Nairobi 00100, Kenya.
Molecules. 2022 Jan 28;27(3):888. doi: 10.3390/molecules27030888.
The administration of toxin-specific therapy in snake envenoming is predicated on improved diagnostic techniques capable of detecting specific venom toxins. Various serological tests have been used in detecting snakebite envenoming. Comparatively, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been shown to offer a wider practical application. We report an inhibition ELISA for detecting three-finger toxin (3FTx) proteins in venoms of African spitting cobras. The optimized assay detected 3FTxs in (including other sp.) venoms, spiked samples, and venom-challenged mice samples. In venoms of sp., the assay showed inhibition, implying the detection of 3FTxs, but showed little or no inhibition in non- sp. In mice-spiked samples, one-way ANOVA results showed that the observed inhibition was not statistically significant between spiked samples and negative control (-value = 0.164). Similarly, the observed differences in inhibition between venom-challenged and negative control samples were not statistically significant (-value = 0.9109). At an LOD of 0.01 µg/mL, the assay was able to confirm the presence of 3FTxs in the samples. Our results show a proof of concept for the use of an inhibition ELISA model as a tool for detecting 3FTxs in the venoms of African spitting cobra snakes.
在蛇毒中毒的毒素特异性治疗中，前提是能够检测特定毒液毒素的改进诊断技术。已经使用了各种血清学检测来检测蛇咬伤中毒。相比之下，酶联免疫吸附试验（ELISA）已被证明具有更广泛的实际应用。我们报告了一种用于检测非洲喷毒眼镜蛇毒液中三指毒素（3FTx）蛋白的抑制 ELISA。该优化的检测方法可以检测到 （包括其他 种）毒液、加标样品和毒液挑战的小鼠样品中的 3FTxs。在 种的毒液中，该检测方法显示出抑制作用，表明检测到了 3FTxs，但在非 种中抑制作用很小或没有。在小鼠加标样品中，单因素方差分析（One-way ANOVA）结果表明，加标样品与阴性对照之间的观察到的抑制作用在统计学上没有显著差异（-值=0.164）。同样，毒液挑战和阴性对照样品之间观察到的抑制差异在统计学上也没有显著差异（-值=0.9109）。在 LOD 为 0.01 µg/mL 时，该检测方法能够确认样品中存在 3FTxs。我们的结果表明，抑制 ELISA 模型可用作检测非洲喷毒眼镜蛇蛇毒液中 3FTxs 的工具，这是一种概念验证。
