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Horse immunization with short-chain consensus α-neurotoxin generates antibodies against broad spectrum of elapid venomous species

Author

Listed:
  • Guillermo de la Rosa

    (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – UNAM
    University of Toronto)

  • Felipe Olvera

    (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – UNAM)

  • Irving G. Archundia

    (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – UNAM)

  • Bruno Lomonte

    (Universidad de Costa Rica)

  • Alejandro Alagón

    (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – UNAM)

  • Gerardo Corzo

    (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México – UNAM)

Abstract

Antivenoms are fundamental in the therapy for snakebites. In elapid venoms, there are toxins, e.g. short-chain α-neurotoxins, which are quite abundant, highly toxic, and consequently play a major role in envenomation processes. The core problem is that such α-neurotoxins are weakly immunogenic, and many current elapid antivenoms show low reactivity towards them. We have previously developed a recombinant consensus short-chain α-neurotoxin (ScNtx) based on sequences from the most lethal elapid venoms from America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Here we report that an antivenom generated by immunizing horses with ScNtx can successfully neutralize the lethality of pure recombinant and native short-chain α-neurotoxins, as well as whole neurotoxic elapid venoms from diverse genera such as Micrurus, Dendroaspis, Naja, Walterinnesia, Ophiophagus and Hydrophis. These results provide a proof-of-principle for using recombinant proteins with rationally designed consensus sequences as universal immunogens for developing next-generation antivenoms with higher effectiveness and broader neutralizing capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • Guillermo de la Rosa & Felipe Olvera & Irving G. Archundia & Bruno Lomonte & Alejandro Alagón & Gerardo Corzo, 2019. "Horse immunization with short-chain consensus α-neurotoxin generates antibodies against broad spectrum of elapid venomous species," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-11639-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11639-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Mieke Nys & Eleftherios Zarkadas & Marijke Brams & Aujan Mehregan & Kumiko Kambara & Jeroen Kool & Nicholas R. Casewell & Daniel Bertrand & John E. Baenziger & Hugues Nury & Chris Ulens, 2022. "The molecular mechanism of snake short-chain α-neurotoxin binding to muscle-type nicotinic acetylcholine receptors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.

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