Toxicity of the venom of Latrodectus (Araneae: Theridiidae) spiders from different regions of Argentina and neutralization by therapeutic antivenoms

ADOLFO RAFAEL DE ROODT; LAURA CECILIA LANARI; RODRIGO DANIEL LASKOWICZ; VANESSA COSTA DE OLIVEIRA; LUCIA ELVIRA IRAZU; GONZÁLEZ, ALDA; LUIS ALBERTO GIAMBELLUCA; NESTOR NICOLAI; JAVIER HUGO BARRAGAN; LETICIA RAMALLO; RAÚL ALFREDO LOPEZ; JORGE LOPARDO; OSCAR JENSEN; EDMUNDO LARRIEU; ARNOLDO CALABRO; MIRIAM GUADALUPE VURCHARCHUC; NÉSTOR RUBÉN LAGO; SUSANA ISABEL GARCÍA; ERNESTO HORACIO DE TITTO; CARLOS FABIAN DAMÍN

TOXICON

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2017 vol. 130 p. 63 - 72

0041-0101

?Black widow? spiders belong to the genus Latrodectus and are one of the few spiders in the world whose bite can cause severe envenomation in humans and domestic animals. In Argentina, these spiders are distributed throughout the country and are responsible for the highest number of bites by spiders oftoxicological sanitary interest. Here, we studied the toxicity and some biochemical and immunochemical characteristics of eighteen venom samples from Latrodectus spiders from eight different provinces of Argentina, and the neutralization of some of these samples by two therapeutic antivenoms used in the country for the treatment of envenomation and by a anti-Latrodectus antivenom prepared against the venom of Latrodectus mactans from Mexico. We observed important toxicity in all the samples studied and a variation in the toxicity of samples, even in those from the same region and province and even inthe same Latrodectus species from the same region. The therapeutic antivenoms efficiently neutralized all the venoms studied.