Use of Convective Interaction Media for Analysis of Long‐Nosed Viper Venom

Abstract

It was confirmed in this study that Vipera ammodytes ammodytes venom samples with a higher content of ammodytoxins (Atxs), basic neurotoxic phospholipases A₂, are more lethal, exposing Atxs as one of the major toxic components in the long‐nosed viper venom. In addition, we recently correlated the ability of the venom to produce highly protective antiserum in rabbits with the amount of Atxs in the venom. Here, we developed a rapid, robust, and highly reproducible chromatographic method, based on HPLC separation on Convective Interaction Media to assess the quantity of Atxs in a particular venom sample in order to predict its potential to induce highly protective antiserum in immunized animals.

Keywords:

• Vipera ammodytes ammodytes
• Ammodytoxins
• Convective Interaction Media
• Antivenom production
• Long‐nosed viper

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank Dr. Petra Prijatelj for her technical assistance. This work was supported by the grant BI‐HR/06‐07‐008 from the Slovenian Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology and Croatian Ministry of Science, Education, and Sports and by the grants 021‐0212432‐2033, 021‐0212432‐2431, and TP‐05/0021‐01 from the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education, and Sports.