Laboratory of Pathophysiology, Butantan Institute, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Interunits Graduate Program in Biotechnology, University of São Paulo, Butantan Institute and Technological Research Institute of the State of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Laboratory of Herpetology, Butantan Institute, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Laboratory of Toxinology and Cardiovascular Research, University of Western São Paulo (UNOESTE), Presidente Prudente, SP, Brazil.
Toxicon. 2024 Apr;241:107680. doi: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2024.107680. Epub 2024 Mar 5.
In this work, we compared the biochemical and toxicological profiles of venoms from an adult female specimen of Lachesis muta rhombeata (South American bushmaster) and her seven offspring born in captivity, based on SDS-PAGE, RP-HPLC, enzymatic, coagulant, and hemorrhagic assays. Although adult and juvenile venoms showed comparable SDS-PAGE profiles, juveniles lacked some chromatographic peaks compared with adult venom. Adult venom had higher proteolytic (caseinolytic) activity than juvenile venoms (p < 0.05), but there were no significant inter-venom variations in the esterase, PLA, phosphodiesterase and L-amino acid oxidase (LAAO) activities, although the latter activity was highly variable among the venoms. Juveniles displayed higher coagulant activity on human plasma, with a minimum coagulant dose ∼42% lower than the adult venom (p < 0.05), but there were no age-related differences in thrombin-like activity. Adult venom was more fibrinogenolytic (based on the rate of fibrinogen chain degradation) and hemorrhagic than juvenile venoms (p < 0.05). The effective dose of Bothrops/Lachesis antivenom (produced by the Instituto Butantan) needed to neutralize the coagulant activity was ∼57% greater for juvenile venoms (p < 0.05), whereas antivenom did not attenuate the thrombin-like activity of juvenile and adult venoms. Antivenom significantly reduced the hemorrhagic activity of adult venom (400 μg/kg, i. d.), but not that of juvenile venoms. Overall, these data indicate a compositional and functional ontogenetic shift in L. m. rhombeata venom.
在这项工作中，我们比较了来自圈养的一条成年雌性红尾蚺（南美响尾蛇）及其 7 个后代的毒液的生化和毒理学特征，基于 SDS-PAGE、RP-HPLC、酶、凝血和出血测定。尽管成年和幼年毒液的 SDS-PAGE 图谱相似，但与成年毒液相比，幼年毒液缺乏一些色谱峰。成年毒液的蛋白水解（酪蛋白水解）活性高于幼年毒液（p<0.05），但酯酶、PLA、磷酸二酯酶和 L-氨基酸氧化酶（LAAO）活性在毒液之间没有显著差异，尽管后者活性在毒液中变化很大。幼蛇对人血浆的凝血活性较高，最小凝血剂量比成年毒液低约 42%（p<0.05），但在类似凝血酶的活性方面没有年龄相关的差异。成年毒液比幼年毒液更具有纤维蛋白原水解（基于纤维蛋白原链降解的速率）和出血作用（p<0.05）。中和凝血活性所需的 Bothrops/Lachesis 抗毒液（由巴西布坦坦研究所生产）的有效剂量对于幼年毒液而言约高 57%（p<0.05），而抗毒液并没有减弱幼年和成年毒液的类似凝血酶的活性。抗毒液显著降低了成年毒液的出血活性（400μg/kg，i.d.），但对幼年毒液的活性没有影响。总的来说，这些数据表明红尾蚺毒液在组成和功能上存在个体发生的转变。
