Antigenic relationships and relative immunogenicities of isolated metalloproteinases from Echis ocellatus venom

Remote South American Snakebite with Extensive Myonecrosis

This report describes a patient envenomated by a Bothrops atrox, common fer-de-lance viper, in the remote rainforest of eastern Ecuador and without access to definitive care for seven days. Antivenom was not administered; by the time of presentation to a hospital, he had suffered myonecrosis of his lower leg, which was treated with debridement and eventual skin graft. The ramifications of this long evacuation demonstrate the need for more accessible health services and educational outreach.

Serine protease variants encoded by Echis ocellatus venom gland cDNA: cloning and sequencing analysis

Envenoming by Echis saw-scaled viper is the leading cause of death and morbidity in Africa due to snake bite. Despite its medical importance, there have been few investigations into the toxin composition of the venom of this viper. Here, we report the cloning of cDNA sequences encoding four groups or isoforms of the haemostasis-disruptive Serine protease proteins (SPs) from the venom glands of Echis ocellatus. All these SP sequences encoded the cysteine residues scaffold that form the 6-disulphide bonds responsible for the characteristic tertiary structure of venom serine proteases. All the Echis ocellatus EoSP groups showed varying degrees of sequence similarity to published viper venom SPs. However, these groups also showed marked intercluster sequence conservation across them which were significantly different from that of previously published viper SPs. Because viper venom SPs exhibit a high degree of sequence similarity and yet exert profoundly different effects on the mammalian haemostatic system, no attempt was made to assign functionality to the new Echis ocellatus EoSPs on the basis of sequence alone. The extraordinary level of interspecific and intergeneric sequence conservation exhibited by the Echis ocellatus EoSPs and analogous serine proteases from other viper species leads us to speculate that antibodies to representative molecules should neutralise (that we will exploit, by epidermal DNA immunization) the biological function of this important group of venom toxins in vipers that are distributed throughout Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent.

Venom gland EST analysis of the saw-scaled viper, Echis ocellatus, reveals novel α9β1 integrin-binding motifs in venom metalloproteinases and a new group of putative toxins, renin-like aspartic proteases

Echis ocellatus is the most medically important snake in West Africa. However, the composition of its venom and the differential contribution of these venom components to the severe haemorrhagic and coagulopathic pathology of envenoming are poorly understood. To address this situation we assembled a toxin transcriptome based upon 1000 expressed sequence tags (EST) from a cDNA library constructed from pooled venom glands of 10 individual E. ocellatus. We used a variety of bioinformatic tools to construct a fully annotated venom-toxin transcriptome that was interrogated with a combination of BLAST annotation, gene ontology cataloguing and disintegrin-motif searching. The results of these analyses revealed an unusually abundant and diverse expression of snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMP) and a broad toxin-expression profile including several distinct isoforms of bradykinin-potentiating peptides, phospholipase A(2), C-type lectins, serine proteinases and l-amino oxidases. Most significantly, we identified for the first time a conserved alpha(9)beta(1) integrin-binding motif in several SVMPs, and a new group of putative venom toxins, renin-like aspartic proteases.

Bioinformatics and multiepitope DNA immunization to design rational snake antivenom

BACKGROUND

Snake venom is a potentially lethal and complex mixture of hundreds of functionally diverse proteins that are difficult to purify and hence difficult to characterize. These difficulties have inhibited the development of toxin-targeted therapy, and conventional antivenom is still generated from the sera of horses or sheep immunized with whole venom. Although life-saving, antivenoms contain an immunoglobulin pool of unknown antigen specificity and known redundancy, which necessitates the delivery of large volumes of heterologous immunoglobulin to the envenomed victim, thus increasing the risk of anaphylactoid and serum sickness adverse effects. Here we exploit recent molecular sequence analysis and DNA immunization tools to design more rational toxin-targeted antivenom.

METHODS AND FINDINGS

We developed a novel bioinformatic strategy that identified sequences encoding immunogenic and structurally significant epitopes from an expressed sequence tag database of a venom gland cDNA library of Echis ocellatus, the most medically important viper in Africa. Focusing upon snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs) that are responsible for the severe and frequently lethal hemorrhage in envenomed victims, we identified seven epitopes that we predicted would be represented in all isomers of this multimeric toxin and that we engineered into a single synthetic multiepitope DNA immunogen (epitope string). We compared the specificity and toxin-neutralizing efficacy of antiserum raised against the string to antisera raised against a single SVMP toxin (or domains) or antiserum raised by conventional (whole venom) immunization protocols. The SVMP string antiserum, as predicted in silico, contained antibody specificities to numerous SVMPs in E. ocellatus venom and venoms of several other African vipers. More significantly, the antiserum cross-specifically neutralized hemorrhage induced by E. ocellatus and Cerastes cerastes cerastes venoms.

CONCLUSIONS

These data provide valuable sequence and structure/function information of viper venom hemorrhagins but, more importantly, a new opportunity to design toxin-specific antivenoms-the first major conceptual change in antivenom design after more than a century of production. Furthermore, this approach may be adapted to immunotherapy design in other cases where targets are numerous, diverse, and poorly characterized such as those generated by hypermutation or antigenic variation.

Effects of three novel metalloproteinases from the venom of the West African saw-scaled viper, Echis ocellatus on blood coagulation and platelets

Two metalloproteinases, a 24-kDa P-I EoVMP1 and a 56-kDa P-III EoVMP2, have recently been isolated from the venom of the West African saw-scaled viper Echis ocellatus. We now reveal a new 65-kDa haemorrhagic group P-III metalloproteinase which we have designated EoVMP3. The aim of this study was to determine whether these three snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs) affect platelets and blood coagulation. EoVMP1 had no effect on the aggregation of washed human platelets, whereas EoVMP2 inhibited collagen-induced platelet aggregation. In contrast, EoVMP3 did not inhibit the aggregation of platelets by collagen but instead activated platelets in the absence of any additional co-factors. All three SVMPs were capable of activating prothrombin to varying degrees and can therefore be described as procoagulants. EoVMP1, EoVMP2 and EoVMP3 share sequence identity with other members of the reprolysin family, but differ greatly in their effects on some of the components that control haemostasis.