Progress and improvement of the manufacturing process of snake antivenom

Antivenoms have been used successfully for more than a century and up to now constitute the only effective treatment for snakebites .The production of antivenin started long time ago when the calmette was prepared the antivenom in 1894.The method currently used to prepare antivenom by most of the manufacturers are originated from the method of Pope which was develop in 1938. Several new approaches in the production of antivenom have been proposed to produce IgG, F(ab)2, F(ab) antivenin to improve their quality .These improvement include complete or partial modification in the antivenom production regarding animal, immunization protocols , new adjuvants in hyperimmunization of animals , purification processes ( caprylic acid ,chromatography , diafiltration and ulterafiltration ),enzymatic digestion of IgG (pepsin, papain ) and fractionation of venom .When the IgG is digested enzymatically, different fragments are obtained depending on the enzyme used, that is, if papain is used, three fragments are obtained, the crystallizing fragment (Fc) and two antigen-binding fragments F(ab) and, if pepsin is used, one F(ab')2 fragment is obtained, while the crystallizing fragment is digested. Fab and F(ab)2 fragments conserve their capacity to specifically bind to the antigen that gave rise to them.