Neutralization potencies of four Latin-American antivenoms.

¹Estévez, J.; ²de Roodt, A.; ³Otero, R.; ⁴Salas, M.; ⁴Zavaleta, A.; ⁵D’Suze, G.; ¹Magaña, P.; ¹Hernández, C.; ⁶Alagón, A.

1 Instituto Bioclon, México, 2 INPB-ANLIS “Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 3 Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia, 4 Universidad Peruana “Cayetano Heredia”, Lima, Perú, 5 IVIC, Caracas, Venezuela, 6 Instituto de Biotecnología-UNAM, Cuernavaca, México.

We tested under identical experimental conditions the neutralization potencies of four antivenoms: Antivipmyn Tri [Bioclon, Mexico] (MEX), Suero Antiofidico Polivalente [Probiol, Colombia] (COL), Suero Antibotropico Polivalente, without Crotalus venom in their immunization mix,  INS-CNPB, Peru] (PER), Suero Antiofidico Polivalente [Centro de Biotecnología, UVC, Venezuela] (VEN). The amount of protein per vial of antivenom was 132.8, 745.5, 921.9 and 374.3 mg, respectively. MEX and VEN antivenoms are composed of F(ab’)2 fragments while COL and PER products are whole IgGs. Different amounts of antivenoms were incubated with 3 LD50 of each venom for 30 min at 37ºC and were injected by the i.v. route in CD-1 mice (18-20g, n= 5 per dose). Mortality was recorded 48 h after injection and the effective dose 50 (ED50) was estimated as the antivenom dose that produced 50% survival. Results:

All antivenoms were effective against Bothrops venoms. The Colombian and the Mexican products had the highest potencies against L. muta and C. durissus terrificus, respectively.

Correspondence to:  jestevez@bioclon.com.mx