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Abstract
Currently, the use of anti-venoms is the only available treatment for envenomations caused by poisonous animals, namely snake, scorpion, spider, tick, and jellyfish. Anti-venoms are generally produced in big animals, mostly in horses. A large percentage of the population in some regions is allergic to horse proteins. Several animals are known to be resistant to snakebites, and the anti-hemorrhagic and anti-lethal components have been isolated from sera of opossum, mongoose, meerkat, and hedgehog, as well as from poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. Lethal toxin neutralizing factor (LTNF) was isolated in purity from opossum (D. virginiana) serum by high-pressure liquid chromatography. The molecular weight of LTNF is 63 kDa, and it does not form precipitates with venoms or toxins by immune diffusion test. Death due to intraperitoneal injection of a predetermined lethal dose of venom from major families of snakes (Crotalidae, Elapidae, Viperidae, and Hydrophiidae) is prevented in mice by subsequent intraperitoneal inoculation of LTNF. Furthermore, LTNF neutralizes the lethality of scorpion and bee venoms and toxins from various animal, plant, and bacterial sources. Thus, natural LTNF from opossum serum has potential as a universal therapy for envenomations and other toxin exposure caused by animals, plants, and bacteria.