The major hemorrhagin from C. purpureomaculatus (mangrove pit viper) venom was purified to homogeneity and termed Maculatoxin. Maculatoxin has a molecular weight of 38 kDa as determined by SDS-PAGE. It is an acidic protein (pI= 4.2) and exhibited proteolytic and hemorrhagic activities (MHD10 = 0.84 microg in mice) but was not lethal to mice at a dose of 1 microg/g. The hemorrhagic activity of M...

Viper venoms act mainly on blood and blood vessels. Reports of ophthalmic manifestations after snakebite include ptosis and ophthalmoplegia. In the current study, we describe a case that developed bilateral retinal and subretinal hemorrhage following snakebite. Bilateral retinal hemorrhage is a rare ocular complication of snake envenomation and has not been reported with fundus photographs in t...

The Southern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus helleri) is found in southwestern California (USA), southward through north Baja California (MX) into the northern part of southern Baja California (MX). In this study, the venoms from two Southern Pacific Rattlesnakes were characterized. The two venoms were different in color, concentration, and enzyme activities. Two commercial antivenoms neutralized...

Bothrops jararaca (BJ) and Bothrops erythromelas (BE) are viper snakes found in South-Southeast and Northeast regions of Brazil, respectively. Snake venoms are bioactive neurotoxic substances synthesized and stored by venom glands, with different physiological and pharmacological effects, recently suggesting a possible preference for targets in cancer cells; however, mechanisms of snakes have b...

The activation of factor X in the presence of antithrombin has been studied in order to determine the parameters that control the area under the resulting factor Xa generation curve. Generation curves were analyzed using a model containing three parameters: the total generation of factor Xa, Emax; the rate of factor Xa generation, expressed as a first-order rate constant, kappa 1; and the rate ...

General pharmacology in -the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is considered (Parts 1 and 2). Reference is made to some criticisms of the contemporary materia medica and -to early attempts at a scientific investigation of drugs and poisons. The studies of vegetable drugs by Stoerk and Withering are discussed to illustrate the problems associated with pharmaco-dynamic studies in clinical prac...

OBJECTIVE To compare the relative efficacy of the green pit viper antivenom from Thailand and Agkistrodon halys antivenom from China. DESIGN. In-vivo experimental study. SETTING A wildlife conservation organisation, a university, a poison information centre, and a regional hospital in Hong Kong. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Pre- and post-antivenom lethal dose 50 (LD50) of the Cryptelytrops albolab...

Some myotoxic or neurotoxic PLA2s (phospholipases A2) from pit viper venoms contain characteristic N6 substitutions. Our survey of the venoms of more than ten pit viper genera revealed that N6-PLA2s exist only in limited Asian pit vipers of two genera, Protobothrops and Gloydius, and exist as either monomers or the basic subunits of heterodimers in some New World pit vipers. For the newly ident...