ELISA for the detection of venoms from four medically important snakes of India

Selvanayagam, Emmanuel Z and Gnanavendhan, SG and Ganesh, KA and Rajagopal, D and Subba Rao, PV (1999) ELISA for the detection of venoms from four medically important snakes of India. In: Toxicon, 37 (5). pp. 757-770.

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Abstract

A double antibody sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to detect Echis carinatus venom in various organs (brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys) as well as tissue at the site of injection of mice, at various time intervals (1, 6, 12, 18, 24 h and 12 h intervals up to 72 h) after death. The assay could detect E. carinatus venom levels up to 2.5 ng/ml of tissue homogenate and the venom was detected up to 72 h after death. A highly sensitive and species-specific avidin-biotin microtitre ELISA was also developed to detect venoms of four medically important Indian snakes (Bungarus caeruleus, Naja naja, E. carinatus and Daboia russelli russelli) in autopsy specimens of human victims of snake bite. The assay could detect venom levels as low as 100 pg/ml of tissue homogenate. Venoms were detected in brain, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, tissue at the bite area and postmortem blood. In all 12 human victim cadavers tested the culprit species were identified. As observed in mice, tissue at the site of bite area showed the highest concentration of venom and the brain showed the least. Moderate amounts of venoms were found in liver, spleen, kidneys, heart and lungs. Development of a simple, rapid and species-specific diagnostic kit based on this ELISA technique useful to clinicians is discussed.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Toxicon
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Biochemistry
Date Deposited:	03 Jun 2009 05:52
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:27
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/19251

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