Effect of the Montivipera bornmuelleri snake venom on human blood: coagulation disorders and hemolytic activities

Abstract

Viper's venom is a source of biopharmaceutical compounds, hence the need to assess the effect of this animal extract on human blood. Here, we studied the blood coagulation disorders and hemolytic activities of the venom of M. bornmulleri viper. The pro-coagulant and anticoagulant effects are analyzed with venom concentrations ranging from 0.4 to 0.0031 mg/mL. Thus, the PT is way above the normal value indicating an anticoagulant activity whereas for the aPTT, the high concentration of the venom showed an anticoagulant activity, but a pro-coagulant effect was occurred when the venom concentration decreases to 0.05 and/or 0.025 mg/mL. Hemolytic tests, performed in suspension (30% RBCs) and on blood agar plate (5% RBCs), show that an increased concentration of the venom going until 1.6 mg cannot produce a hemolytic effect, even in the presence of Ca 2+ (hemolysis < 0.5%). Also, on the blood agar plate no hemolytic area appeared even with 0.04 mg of the lyophilized venom. Otherwise, the venom was able to induce a low hemolytic activity (hemolysis = 1.3 %) by acting on L-α-PC used as substrate. In this case, the destruction of erythrocytes increased proportionally to the added amount of phospholipids which are hydrolyzed to fatty acids and lysophospholipids (two toxic substances for RBCs), probably due to the presence of PLA2 in the venom and which are known by their ability to hydrolyze lecithin