Production of effective antivenin to treat cobra snake (Naja naja oxiana) envenoming

Abstract

Conventional treatment of Naja naja oxiana (NNO) envenoming requires large volumes of equine antivenin raised against NNO crude venom. The poor efficiency of this antivenin is assumed to be due to the high molecular weight non-toxic proteins, a strong immunogen, present in the crude venom. These proteins cause depression of antibody formation against the low molecular weight toxic components of venom. In the present study the low molecular weight lethal components were isolated from crude venom of NNO venom by sephadex G50 get filtration chromatography. A sera was prepared by immunizing horses with toxic fraction. One milliliter of this serum neutralized 1.8mg of NNO crude venom. This high titer antivenin is thus 2.2 times more potent than the sera obtained against NNO crude venom.

Keywords

• Naja naja Oxiana
• venom
• gel chromatography
• Antivenin