Péptidos con capacidad de inhibir componentes tóxicos del veneno de serpientes

S. L. SAAVEDRA; S. L. GIUDICESSI; S. A. CAMPERI; O. CASCONE; M. C. MARTÍNEZ CERON

Revista Farmacéutica

Academia Nacional de Farmacia y Bioquímica

Año: 2017 vol. 159 p. 32 - 43

0034-9496

Accidents caused by poisonous snakes are a public health problem, mainly in underdeveloped countries. In most of them there are deficiencies in the production and distribution of antivenoms. Nowadays, the only treatment for snake bite poisoning is the use of antidotes containing immunoglobulins obtained after immunization of horses or sheep with snake venom, which are rather expensive. The low stability of immunoglobulins difficult its distribution to remote places, where they are often required. An antidote based on short peptides that inhibit specific components of snake venoms would be very useful since they are more stable than proteins and easier to synthesize, furthermore, they can be chemically modified to improve their stability, solubility, affinity and selectivity. In this article, the different strategies used for the identification of these peptides are reviewed.