Crotoxin: Structural Studies, Mechanism of Action and Cloning of Its gene

The purpose of this project is to 1 gain greater insight in to crotoxin and crotoxin homolog structure, in order to provide a better understanding of this class of rattlesnake neurotoxin 2 develop an in vitro system for examining presynaptic neurotoxin mechanism of action 3 clone the crotoxin gene as a first step in creating non-toxic, crotoxin immunogens as potential vaccines against crotoxin and its homolog. The four monoclonal antibodies and rabbit polyclonals raised against the basic subunit of crotoxin have been further characterized for their cross-reactivity against each other, in the first step of attempting to determine their binding epitopes. One of the monoclonal antibodies is a potent neutralizer of crotoxins lethality and phospholipase activity. Another, is a non-neutralizer, but is able to inhibit the phospholipase activity by up to 90. Work is continuing in an attempt to identify the neutralizing MAb epitope and other antigenic regions in the basic subunit of crotoxin recognized by rabbit polyclonal antibodies. Keywords Crotoxins Presynaptic neurotoxins Rattlesnake toxins Natural toxins RA1 Antitoxins.