title: Evaluation of the lethal potency of scorpion and snake venoms and comparison between intraperitoneal and intravenous injection routes.
abstract: Scorpion stings and snake bites are major health hazards that lead to suffering of victims and high mortality. Thousands of injuries associated with such stings and bites of venomous animals occur every year worldwide. In North Africa, more than 100,000 scorpion stings and snake bites are reported annually. An appropriate determination of the 50% lethal doses (LD₅₀) of scorpion and snake venoms appears to be an important step to assess (and compare) venom toxic activity. Such LD₅₀ values are also commonly used to evaluate the neutralizing capacity of specific anti-venom batches. In the present work, we determined experimentally the LD₅₀ values of reference scorpion and snake venoms in Swiss mice, and evaluated the influence of two main venom injection routes (i.e., intraperitoneal (IP) versus intravenous (IV)). The analysis of experimental LD₅₀ values obtained with three collected scorpion venoms indicates that Androctonus mauretanicus (Am) is intrinsically more toxic than Androctonus australis hector (Aah) species, whereas the latter is more toxic than Buthus occitanus (Bo). Similar analysis of three representative snake venoms of the Viperidae family shows that Cerastes cerastes (Cc) is more toxic than either Bitis arietans (Ba) or Macrovipera lebetina (Ml) species. Interestingly, the venom of Elapidae cobra snake Naja haje (Nh) is far more toxic than viper venoms Cc, Ml and Ba, in agreement with the known severity of cobra-related envenomation. Also, our data showed that viper venoms are about three-times less toxic when injected IP as compared to IV, distinct from cobra venom Nh which exhibited a similar toxicity when injected IP or IV. Overall, this study clearly highlights the usefulness of procedure standardization, especially regarding the administration route, for evaluating the relative toxicity of individual animal venoms. It also evidenced a marked difference in lethal activity between venoms of cobra and vipers, which, apart from the nature of toxins, might be attributed to the rich composition of high molecular weight enzymes in the case of viper venoms.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Venoms and Toxins, Pasteur Institute of Morocco, 1 Place Louis Pasteur, Casablanca 20360, Morocco. oukkache.naoual@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Naoual
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Oukkache
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University Mohamed V-Souissi, Rabat 6203, Morocco. eljaoudi_rachid@yahoo.fr.
authors.forename: Rachid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: El Jaoudi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Venoms and Toxins, Pasteur Institute of Morocco, 1 Place Louis Pasteur, Casablanca 20360, Morocco. nghalim@yahoo.fr.
authors.forename: Noreddine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ghalim
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Venoms and Toxins, Pasteur Institute of Morocco, 1 Place Louis Pasteur, Casablanca 20360, Morocco. fchgoury@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fatima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chgoury
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Venoms and Therapeutic Molecules, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, 13 Place Pasteur, BP74, Tunis 1002, Tunisia. balkiss.bouhaouala@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Balkiss
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bouhaouala
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Venoms and Toxins, Pasteur Institute of Morocco, 1 Place Louis Pasteur, Casablanca 20360, Morocco. naima.elmdaghri@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Naima El
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Mdaghri
authors.affiliation: Laboratory INSERM UMR 1097, University of Aix-Marseille, 163, Parc Scientifique et Technologique de Luminy, Avenue de Luminy, Bâtiment TPR2, Case 939, Marseille 13288, France. sabatier.jm1@libertysurf.fr.
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sabatier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004546:Elapid Venoms / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D017815:Elapidae; D006801:Humans; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D007928:Lethal Dose 50; D051379:Mice; D009018:Morocco; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D030162:Reptilian Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D065008:Scorpion Stings / Q000503:physiopathology; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D012605:Scorpions; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012909:Snake Bites; D023382:Toxicity Tests, Acute; D014757:Viper Venoms / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D017819:Viperidae
chemical_list: D004546:Elapid Venoms; D009498:Neurotoxins; D011506:Proteins; D030162:Reptilian Proteins; D012604:Scorpion Venoms; D014757:Viper Venoms