The benefits from treatment with antivenom sera are indubitable. However, the mechanism for toxin neutralization has not been completely elucidated. A mixture of anti-bothropic and anti-crotalic horse antivenom has been reported to be more effective in neutralizing the effects of Bothrops jararacussu snake venom than anti-bothropic antivenom alone. This study determined which regions in the three PLA₂s from B. jararacussu snake venom are bound by antibodies in tetravalent anti-bothropic and monovalent anti-crotalic commercial horse antivenom. Mapping experiments of BthTX-I, BthTX-II and BthA-I using two small libraries of 69 peptides each revealed six major IgG-binding epitopes that were recognized by both anti-bothropic and anti-crotalic horse antivenom. Two epitopes in BthTX-I were only recognized by the anti-bothropic horse antivenom, while anti-crotalic horse antivenom recognized four unique epitopes across the three PLA₂s. Our studies suggest that the harmful activities of the PLA₂s present in the venom of B. jararacussu are neutralized by the combinatorial treatment with both antivenom sera through their complementary binding sites, which provides a wide coverage on the PLA₂s. This is the first peptide microarray of PLA₂s from B. jararacussu snake venom to survey the performance of commercial horse antiophidic antivenom. Regions recognized by the protective antivenom sera are prime candidates for improved venom cocktails or a chimeric protein encoding the multiple epitopes to immunize animals as well as for designing future synthetic vaccines.

The presence of whole horse IgG in therapeutic snake antivenom preparations of high purity is a contamination that can cause IgE-mediated allergic reactions in patients. In this study, the immunodominant IgE and IgG-binding epitopes in horse heavy chain IgG3 were mapped using arrays of overlapping peptides synthesized directly onto activated cellulose membranes. Pooled human sera from patients with and without horse antivenom allergies were used to probe the membrane. We have demonstrated that, for both cases, individuals produce antibodies to epitopes of sequential amino acids of horse heavy chain IgG3, although the signal strength and specificity appear to be distinct between the two groups of patients. A single region was found to contain the dominant allergic IgE epitope. The critical residues involved in the binding of human IgE to the epitope were determined to include four hydrophobic amino acids followed by polar and charged residues that formed a coil structure. This is the first study to describe the specific amino acid sequences involved with the immune recognition of human IgG and IgE to horse antivenom.