Identification of antinociceptive fraction of snake venom from Crotalus durissus collilineatus crotamine-negative and its acute toxicity evaluation

- An antinociceptive active component from Crotalus durissus collilineatus crotamine-negative venom was purified by HPLC technique.
- The acute toxicity test results revealed this molecule as an apparently non-toxic substance and, so, a promising target for the development of new drugs.

The crude venom of the snake Crotalus durissus collilineatus (CDC) promotes neurological signs and symptoms in accidents involving humans and animals and the victims reports analgesia at the bite site, without tissue destruction. Studies shows that CDC has analgesic activity, among others. The crude venom is considered unsuitable for therapeutic purposes, with encouragement to the fractionation and purification of the same. Thus, the aim with CDC venom is: to perform fractionation by preparative HPLC; to test the antinociceptive activity of fractions and acute toxicity of active fractions. The CDC was fractionated on preparative HPLC-PDA (Oliveira et al., 2015) and the fractions were tested for their antinociceptive activity for writhing test by acetic acid (0.6%) in mice. For one of the fractions, which showed high analgesic effect both p.o. and i.p. routes, it evaluated the acute toxicity by the up and down method (OECD, 2001). In the fractionation by HPLC-PDA, CDC yielded 10 peaks (P1P10). SDS-PAGE showed that there was a good separation of components of the venom. All peaks were evaluated for their ability to reduce writhing, and the only one that apparently showed antinociceptive effect was Fr5 fraction (40 μg/kg). The Fr5 was able to reduce by 47% the number of contortions (i.p.) and 87% (p.o.), compared to control. The Fr5 fraction showed no morbidity and no mortality in the acute toxicity test (dose of 1000 μg/kg, p.o.); so it was not possible to estimate the LD50. According to the results, it can be stated that the venom and Fr5 of Crotalus durissus collilineatus snake of crotamine-negative type, may exhibit antinociceptive activity by suppressing nociception induced by acetic acid, suggesting it is related to effects on peripheral sites spinal and presents low acute toxicity values in experimental animals.