Laboratório de Herpetologia, Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, 05503-900, SP, Brazil; Interunidades Em Biotecnologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas-Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas-Instituto Butantan, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 05508-900, SP, Brazil.
Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, 04023-901, SP, Brazil.
Toxicon. 2022 Jul 30;214:78-90. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2022.05.007. Epub 2022 May 21.
Considerable heterogeneity and ontogenetic changes in venom composition have already been observed in different species of snakes within the Viperidae family. Since the venom of young and adult can cause distinct pathological effects and because the antivenom may be less effective in neutralizing envenoming by young snakes compared to adults, it is of paramount importance to understand the ontogenetic variation of snake venom. Thus, the present study aimed to analyze and compare the venom of Bothrops pauloensis snakes, searching for possible influences of ontogeny and sex in their biochemical and biological aspects. The venom of younger individuals was more complex in relation to high molecular mass proteins, with a greater abundance of metalloproteinases, while adults showed a greater abundance of medium and low molecular mass proteins, such as phospholipases A (PLA), C-type lectins and serine proteases. The antivenom showed better immunorecognition towards the venom of adult snakes than younger ones, in addition to a deficiency in the recognition of medium molecular mass proteins, suggesting the need for an improvement in the antivenom. Younger snakes showed higher coagulant, caseinolytic, and hemorrhagic activity, while adult snakes showed higher L-amino acid oxidase (LAAO) activity and acted faster in lethality. Differences between males and females were observed mainly in the rate of loss of coagulant activity, change in PLA activity and lethality action time. Furthermore, considering only the adult groups, males showed a higher LAAO and thrombin-like activity, while females showed a higher caseinolytic and hyaluronidase activity. With the results obtained in this work, it was possible to conclude that there is an ontogenetic variation in the composition and some activities of the B. pauloensis snake venom, in addition to differences between the venom of males and females, reinforcing that there is an intraspecific variation that may result in different symptoms in their envenoming and, consequently, differences in the response to treatment with the antivenom.
已经观察到，在蝰科的不同蛇种中，毒液组成存在相当大的异质性和个体发生变化。由于幼蛇和成年蛇的毒液可能引起不同的病理效应，并且与成年蛇相比，幼蛇的抗蛇毒血清可能在中和蛇毒方面效果较差，因此了解蛇毒液的个体发生变化至关重要。因此，本研究旨在分析和比较波多黎各响尾蛇的毒液，寻找其生化和生物学方面个体发生和性别的可能影响。年轻个体的毒液与高分子质量蛋白相比更为复杂，金属蛋白酶的丰度更高，而成年个体则显示出更多的中、低分子质量蛋白，如磷脂酶 A（PLA）、C 型凝集素和丝氨酸蛋白酶。抗蛇毒血清对成年蛇毒液的免疫识别优于幼蛇毒液，此外，对中分子质量蛋白的识别不足，表明需要改进抗蛇毒血清。年轻的蛇显示出更高的凝血、酪蛋白水解和出血活性，而成年蛇显示出更高的 L-氨基酸氧化酶（LAAO）活性和更快的致死作用。雄性和雌性之间的差异主要表现在凝血活性丧失速度、PLA 活性变化和致死作用时间上。此外，仅考虑成年组，雄性表现出更高的 LAAO 和凝血酶样活性，而雌性表现出更高的酪蛋白水解和透明质酸酶活性。通过本工作获得的结果，可以得出结论，B. pauloensis 蛇毒液的组成和一些活性存在个体发生变化，此外，雄性和雌性毒液之间存在差异，这进一步证实了种内存在变异，可能导致其毒液中毒的症状不同，因此对抗蛇毒血清的治疗反应也不同。
