1A. Importantly, cross-reactivity with B. andianus venom and reactivity with B. atrox, B. barnetti and B. pictus

was observed. In this experiment, a weaker reactivity was observed against the venoms from B. pictus and B. hyoprora. Fig. 1B shows the results of the Western Blot assay. PABA was able to recognize all of the analyzed venoms. Regarding B. andianus venom, reactivity against bands at ∼14, 25, 50 kDa and higher masses were observed. There was remarkable reactivity with the ∼14 kDa protein compared to the others. B. andianus venom has toxicological and electrophoretic profiles similar to those of other Peruvian Bothrops sp. venoms used in the anti-venom p38 MAPK phosphorylation production. The toxicological profile is also common to Bothropic envenomations characterized by local tissue damage and by systemic manifestations ( White, 2005). The symptoms observed in animals experimentally envenomed by B. andianus venom were very similar to other Peruvian Bothrops venoms ( Laing et al., 2004; Rojas et al., 2005). Our observations find that PABA is effective in neutralizing the most important toxic activities induced by B. andianus venoms when using an experimental protocol based on pre-incubation of venom and anti-venom before testing in experimental systems ( Gutierrez et al., 1990;

Otero et al., 1995). Thus, despite the fact that B. andianus venom is not included in the antigenic pool used in Peru, PABA is effective against this venom. Our preclinical observations are in agreement with the report of Rojas et al. (2005), see more which shows the efficacy

of Peruvian anti-venom in neutralizing many snake venoms found in Peru. This research was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil – CAPES (TOXINOLOGIA No 23038000825/2011-63), Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais, Brazil (FAPEMIG) and by funds of the INCTTOX PROGRAM of Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil (CNPq). The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support and assistance of the Instituto Nacional de Salud (Lima, Peru) without which it would not have been possible to carry out this study. We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Michael Richardson and Jessica McCormack for dipyridamole revising this manuscript. “
“The Brazilian Ministry of Health registered 25,189 cases of accidents with venomous snakes in 2010 and envenomations caused by Bothrops snakes were the most frequent (72.5%). One of the most striking local effects observed during the poisoning is pain, swelling, degradation of connective tissue, blood vessels, muscle cells, among other physiological components. In some cases tissue injury can result in permanent disability of the affected member. The only treatment currently available for bothropic accidents is the serumtherapy with specific antivenom.