Abstract
Snakebite envenoming is a neglected tropical disease prevalent in South Asia. In Pakistan, antivenoms are commonly imported from India despite the controversy over their effectiveness. To solve the problem, the locals have developed the Pakistani Viper Antivenom (PVAV), raised against Sochurek's Saw-scaled Viper (Echis carinatus sochureki) and Russell's Viper (Daboia russelii) of Pakistani origin. This study is set to evaluate the composition purity, immuno-specificity and neutralization efficacy of PVAV. Chromatographic and electrophoretic profiling coupled with proteomic mass spectrometry analysis showed PVAV containing high-purity immunoglobulin G with minimum impurities, notably the absence of serum albumin. PVAV is highly immuno-specific toward the venoms of the two vipers and Echis carinatus multisquamatus, which are indigenous to Pakistan. Its immunoreactivity, however, reduces toward the venoms of other Echis carinatus subspecies and D. russelii from South India as well as Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, its non-specific binding activities for the venoms of Hump-nosed Pit Vipers, Indian Cobras and kraits were extremely low. In the neutralization study, PVAV effectively mitigated the hemotoxic and lethal effects of the Pakistani viper venoms, tested in vitro and in vivo. Together, the findings suggest the potential utility of PVAV as a new domestic antivenom for the treatment of viperid envenoming in Pakistan.