Antivenom Evaluation by Electrophysiological Analysis

Scorpion stings on humans are medically relevant because they may contain toxins that specifically target ion channels. During antivenom production, pharmaceutical companies must use a large number of experimental animals to ensure the antivenom’s efficacy according to pharmacopeia methods. Here we present an electrophysiological alternative for the evaluation of horse antivenoms produced against two species of Moroccan scorpions: Buthus mardochei and Androctonus mauretanicus. Human sodium and potassium channels and acetylcholine nicotinic receptors were analyzed by standard patch-clamp techniques. The results showed that the antivenom is capable of reversing ion current disruption caused by the venom application. We propose the use of this in vitro technique for antivenom evaluation as an alternative to using a large number of live animals.

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Toxins

• Publication date

  2017-02-23

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/toxins9030074PMID 28241514PMCID 5371829
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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