Coral snakes of the genus Micrurus have a high diversity and a wide distribution in the Americas. Despite envenomings by these animals are uncommon, accidents are often severe and may result in death. Producing an antivenom to treat these envenomings has been challenging since coral snakes are difficult to catch, produce small amounts of venom, and the antivenoms produced have shown limited cross neutralization. Here we present data of cross neutralization among monovalent antivenoms raised against M. dumerilii, M. isozonus, M. mipartitus and M. surinamensis and the development of a new polyvalent coral snake antivenom, resulting from the mix of monovalent antivenoms. Our results, show that this coral snake antivenom has high neutralizing potency and wide taxonomic coverage, constituting a possible alternative for a long sought Pan-American coral snake antivenom.
BT - PLoS neglected tropical diseases C1 -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30856180?dopt=Abstract
DO - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007250 IS - 3 J2 - PLoS Negl Trop Dis LA - eng N2 -Coral snakes of the genus Micrurus have a high diversity and a wide distribution in the Americas. Despite envenomings by these animals are uncommon, accidents are often severe and may result in death. Producing an antivenom to treat these envenomings has been challenging since coral snakes are difficult to catch, produce small amounts of venom, and the antivenoms produced have shown limited cross neutralization. Here we present data of cross neutralization among monovalent antivenoms raised against M. dumerilii, M. isozonus, M. mipartitus and M. surinamensis and the development of a new polyvalent coral snake antivenom, resulting from the mix of monovalent antivenoms. Our results, show that this coral snake antivenom has high neutralizing potency and wide taxonomic coverage, constituting a possible alternative for a long sought Pan-American coral snake antivenom.
PY - 2019 EP - e0007250 T2 - PLoS neglected tropical diseases TI - A polyvalent coral snake antivenom with broad neutralization capacity. UR - https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0007250&type=printable VL - 13 SN - 1935-2735 ER -