title: Danger in the reef: Proteome, toxicity, and neutralization of the venom of the olive sea snake, Aipysurus laevis.
abstract: Four specimens of the olive sea snake, Aipysurus laevis, were collected off the coast of Western Australia, and the venom proteome was characterized and quantitatively estimated by RP-HPLC, SDS-PAGE, and MALDI-TOF-TOF analyses. A. laevis venom is remarkably simple and consists of phospholipases A2 (71.2%), three-finger toxins (3FTx; 25.3%), cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRISP; 2.5%), and traces of a complement control module protein (CCM; 0.2%). Using a Toxicity Score, the most lethal components were determined to be short neurotoxins. Whole venom had an intravenous LD50 of 0.07 mg/kg in mice and showed a high phospholipase A2 activity, but no proteinase activity in vitro. Preclinical assessment of neutralization and ELISA immunoprofiling showed that BioCSL Sea Snake Antivenom was effective in cross-neutralizing A. laevis venom with an ED50 of 821 μg venom per mL antivenom, with a binding preference towards short neurotoxins, due to the high degree of conservation between short neurotoxins from A. laevis and Enhydrina schistosa venom. Our results point towards the possibility of developing recombinant antibodies or synthetic inhibitors against A. laevis venom due to its simplicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Andreas H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Laustsen
authors.affiliation: Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
authors.forename: José María
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
authors.affiliation: Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Denmark.
authors.forename: Arne R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Engmark
authors.affiliation: National Aquarium of Denmark (Den Blå Planet), Denmark.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gravlund
authors.affiliation: School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: Kate L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.affiliation: Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lohse
authors.affiliation: Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica. Electronic address: bruno.lomonte@ucr.ac.cr.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lomonte
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000997:Antivenins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001315:Australia; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003429:Cross Reactions; D004546:Elapid Venoms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D017815:Elapidae / Q000378:metabolism*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D007928:Lethal Dose 50; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020543:Proteome; D030162:Reptilian Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000276:immunology / Q000633:toxicity; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D000997:Antivenins; D004546:Elapid Venoms; D020543:Proteome; D030162:Reptilian Proteins
keywords: Aipysurus laevis; Olive sea snake; Proteomics; Snake venom; Toxicity; Venomics