Venom from Bothrops lanceolatus, a Snake Species Native to Martinique, Potently Activates the Complement System

Figure 1

Activation of the three Complement pathways by B. lanceolatus venom. NHS (dilution 1 : 80 (a), 1 : 4 (b), and 1 : 25 (c)) was incubated with several concentrations of B. lanceolatus venom at 37°C for 1 h (CP) or 30 min (AP and LP), and diluted to test their residual Complement activity. NHS incubated only with buffer was used as control. (a) Sensitized sheep erythrocytes were used to assess the CP while (b) rabbit erythrocytes (E_R) were used for the AP. (c) For the LP, residual binding of C4 on a mannan-coated plate was used. The results represent mean ± SD of duplicates of a representative assay. Experiments were performed three times. The CH₅₀, AP₅₀, and LP₅₀ were calculated by nonlinear regression from these curves. The IC₅₀ of the venom for each pathway and respective CI95% were calculated. The venom affected the classical pathway with an IC₅₀ of 156.6 μg/mL of NHS (CI95%: 147.3–166.6 μg/mL of NHS), the alternative pathway with an IC₅₀ of 294.5 μg/mL of NHS (CI95%: 273.2–317.4 μg/mL of NHS), and the LP pathway with an IC₅₀ of 396.3 μg/mL of NHS (CI95%: 375.7–418.0 μg/mL of NHS).

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