Omics Meets Biology: Application to the Design and Preclinical Assessment of Antivenoms

Toxins

Juan J. Calvete¹  Libia Sanz¹  Davinia Pla¹  Bruno Lomonte²  José Mar໚ Gutiérrez² 

[1] Structural and Functional Venomics Lab, Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia (CSIC), Valencia 46010, Spain; E-Mails:;Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José 11501, Costa Rica

关键词: snake venom;    snakebite envenoming;    antivenom;    preclinical venom neutralization assays;    venomics;    antivenomics;   

DOI  :  10.3390/toxins6123388

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Snakebite envenoming represents a neglected tropical disease that has a heavy public health impact worldwide, mostly affecting poor people involved in agricultural activities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. A key issue that complicates the treatment of snakebite envenomings is the poor availability of the only validated treatment for this disease, antivenoms. Antivenoms can be an efficacious treatment for snakebite envenoming, provided they are safe, effective, affordable, accessible and administered appropriately. The shortage of antivenoms in various regions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of Asia, can be significantly alleviated by optimizing the use of current antivenoms and by the generation of novel polyspecific antivenoms having a wide spectrum of efficacy. Complementing preclinical testing of antivenom efficacy using in vivo and in vitro functional neutralization assays, developments in venomics and antivenomics are likely to revolutionize the design and preclinical assessment of antivenoms by being able to test new antivenom preparations and to predict their paraspecific neutralization to the level of species-specific toxins.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.