Adder bites are rare events, but they can be fatal. Three adder types live in Romania - Vipera ammodytes, Vipera ursini and Vipera berus. Most adder bites happen during the summer with a peak incidence between July and August. Here we present the case of a 56 years old male patient who was bitten by an adder. The clinical presentation was severe from the beginning with a GCS of 3 points, respir...

The venom of Pakistan species of snakes (Naja naja, Vipera russelli and Echis carinatus) and lethal fractions of Cobra (Naja naja) venom were converted to toxoid with formalin. Detoxification of the crude venoms and toxic fraction was attained by addition of formalin in several steps and incubation at 37°C maintaining the pH 7.0. Relationship of formalin concentration and incubation period was ...

Viperfav(TM) is a commercial F(ab')₂ antivenom prepared against European vipers venom. It is safe and effective for treating envenomation caused by Vipera aspis and Vipera berus. Therapeutic efficacy for treating Vipera ammodytes ammodytes (V. a. ammodytes) envenoming has not been yet described, although protective efficacy has been demonstrated in preclinical studies. We report on a 32-year-ol...

Snake venoms are a very abundant source of nerve growth factors (NGF). NGFs of Elapidae showing 65% sequence homology with mouse or human NGF, while the Viperidae NGF shows N-glycosylation (Asn-21) typical of these mammalian NGFs. Snake NGF-induced neurite outgrowth (neurotropic activity) was measured in the past by using PC12 cell or dorsal root ganglion bioassays. The present study was aimed ...

The venoms extracted from a colubrid snake [Malpolon monspessulanus (Hermann)], seven viperids [Montivipera xanthina (Gray), Montivipera wagneri Nilson &Andrén, Vipera ammodytes (Linnaeus), Vipera kaznakovi (Nikolsky), Vipera eriwanensis (Bonaparte), Vipera barani Böhme & Joger, Macrovipera lebetina (Linnaeus)] and an elapid snake [Walterinnesia aegyptia (Lataste)] collected from various region...

We studied beneficial difference of the skin of two snakes. Two snakes were chosen from two different habitats and two families: Colubridae (Natrix tessellata) and Viperidae (Cerastes vipera). The investigations were performed by light and electron microscopy. Histologically, the skin of the studied species show pronounced modifications that correlated with functional demands. The scales in Nat...

BACKGROUND The variation of venom composition with geography is an important aspect of intraspecific variability in the Vipera genus, although causes of this variability remain unclear. The diversity of snake venom is important both for our understanding of venomous snake evolution and for the preparation of relevant antivenoms to treat envenomations. A geographic intraspecific variation in sna...

abstract background and objective: snake venom is a complex of several toxic elements and enzymes. it has the agents with the ability to destroy cellular and subcellular membrane and to bring about hemolysis of red blood cells (rbc). two types of direct and indirect hemolytic activity are known in snake venom in that phospholipase a2 is responsible for the indirect lysis. the aim of this study ...

The new species Dociostaurus biskrensis Moussi & Petit 2013 was collected in the region of Biskra, at the arido-Saharan limit of Eastern Algerian. We also describe the males of four species for which only females were known: Pamphagulus bodenheimeri dumonti, P. uvarovi, Notopleura pygmaea and Sphingonotus ebneri. The key to the genus Dociostaurus in North Africa is given. The species P. uvarovi...