Snake venom toxins—I. Preliminary studies on the separation of toxins of elapidae venoms

Non-enzymatic proteins from snake venoms: A gold mine of pharmacological tools and drug leads

“…I was aware of papers from the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research group that had reported sequences of several toxic and non-toxic proteins from venoms of different species of mamba (Dendroaspis) snakes. I had been intrigued by some of the statements about effects seen in mice after injection of components of venom of the Eastern green mamba, D. angusticeps: mice had a fluffed appearance; none of the isolated components was lethal, but a combination was sufficient to kill within 10 min (Strydom and Botes, 1970;Viljoen and Botes, 1974).…”

The Primary Structure of a Major Polypeptide Component from the Venom of Naja melanoleuca

“…The available data, summarised in Table 2, indicate that the neurotoxic components in the venom from West Africa (Poilleux and Boquet [l], Shipolini et ul. [2]) differ quantitatively from those in the venom obtained by the South African workers [3] but two identical neurotoxins have been found in all cases. The composition with respect to the non-neurotoxic components appears to be more variable.…”

“…The variability may be due, in part, to the origin of the venom samples, those used by the French workers [l] and ourselves [2] deriving from Guinea, while the South African workers [3,4] obtained venom from a local professional snake-catcher. Anomalies in the compositions of venoms from the West and South African snakes have already been noted [2] with respect to the content of curare-like neurotoxins but it now appears that even greater differences occur in the content of less toxic polypeptides containing 60 or 61 residues.…”

Toxin synergism in snake venoms

“…In this venom, the component S2C4 with relatively low toxicity interacts with angusticeps-type toxins in a synergistic manner when both toxins are co-administered in vivo (Joubert and Taljaard, 1979). In comparison, Strydom and Botes (1970) showed that separated venom fractions from the venom of the related D. angusticeps (Eastern green mamba) were devoid of lethality after 48 hours when administered alone, whereas the whole venom was lethal within 10 minutes when administered at a similar dose. Finally, non-toxic Kunitz-type inhibitors have been shown to interact with ammodytoxins in the venom of Vipera ammodytes ammodytes (Horned viper) (Brgles et al, 2014) and PLA2s in the venom of Micrurus tener (Texas coral snake) in order to create complexes of increased toxicity (Bohlen et al, 2011, Olivera andTeichert, 2011).…”