Citation

Tan CH, Liew JL, Tan NH, Khaldun IA, Maharani T, Khomvilai S, Sitprija V. Toxicon 2017; 140: 32-37.

Affiliation

Thai Red Cross Society, Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, Bangkok, Thailand.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.toxicon.2017.10.014

PMID

29051104

Abstract

Arboreal pit vipers of the Trimeresurus complex group are medically important species in Indonesia (west of Wallace's line), but there is no specific antivenom produced in the country for treating related envenomation. Instead, the exiting trivalent Indonesian antivenom, Biosave(®) Serum Anti Bisa Ular (SABU, indicated for envenoming by Malayan pit viper, Javan spitting cobra and banded krait) is often misused to treat Trimeresus envenoming resulting in poor therapeutic outcome. Here, we investigated the cross-reactivity and neutralization capability of Thai Green Pit Viper Antivenom (GPVAV) against the venoms of four Indonesian Trimeresurus species. Consistently, the venoms of Trimeresurus (Trimeresurus) insularis, Trimeresurus (Trimeresurus) purpureomaculatus, Trimeresurus (Parias) hageni and Trimeresurus (Craspedocephalus) puniceus of Indonesia showed stronger immunoreactivity on ELISA to GPVAV than to Biosave(®). The findings correlated with in vivo neutralization results, whereby GPVAV was far more effective than Biosave(®) in cross-neutralizing the lethality of the venoms by a potency of at least 15 to 80 times higher. The efficacy of GPVAV is partly attributable to its cross-neutralization of the procoagulant effect of the venoms, thereby mitigating the progression of venom-induced consumptive coagulopathy. The paraspecific effectiveness of GPVAV against Trimeresurus species envenoming in Indonesia await further clinical investigation.

Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Coagulant activity; Green Pit Viper Antivenom; Indonesian pit vipers; Lethality; Neutralization efficacy; Trimeresurus