PHARMACOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SNAKE VENOM TO DEVELOP A COMMON ANTIDOTE and ITS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY STUDIES

Abstract

Every year snake bite causes innumerable mortalities in India. Severe tissue damage and loss of organ are other serious issues in the case of envenomation. Antiserum is the only remedy to treat envenomation but lifesaving antivenom also causes serious side effects such as serum sickness, anaphylactoid reaction and it s not shown to be effective in preventing tissue damage. Due to these issues, many scientific communities move towards medicinal plants as the source of antidote to neutralize snake venom. newlineThe present study emphasizes the antivenom activity of Aristolochia bracteolate Lam, Tylophora indica (Burma.F.) Merrill and Leucas aspera S. which were evaluated against venom of Daboia russelli russelli (Russell s viper) and Naja Naja (Indian Cobra). The aqueous extracts of the plants and their polyherbal (1:1:1) formulation at dose of 200 mg/Kg showed protection against envenomed mice with medium LD50 of 0.44 mg/Kg and 0.28 mg/Kg against Russell s viper and Cobra venom respectively. Meanwhile, in vitro antioxidant free radical scavenging activities were screened which were positive for all the products. The test samples were aqueous extracted at 100 and#956;g concentration which showed 38.58%, 43.47% and 60.86% DPPH* radical scavenging effect. 69.34%, 69.95% and 69.65% for reducing power scavenging effect and super oxide radical scavenging effect was recorded as 74.05%, 72.50% and 82.59% respectively. newlineIn silico drug design and docking studies predict the neutralizing principles of screened secondary metabolites aristolochic acid from A. bracteolata and leucasin from L. aspera. The compounds were tested against type I phospholipase A2 (PLA2) from Indian common Krait venom and the in silico model structure of venom hyaluronidase enzyme was analyzed. HPLC, UV-Vis and FTIR results exposes the presence screened compound aritolochic acid and leucasin in the plant sample. The in silico docking studies also prove that snake venom PLA2 activity upon cell membranes of specific tissues play an important role in venom s toxicity.