Development of production of sphingomyelinases D recombinant of the Loxosceles spider to obtain a new polivalent serum in the treatment of loxoscelism.

• Grant number: 15/23523-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2016
• End date: December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology - Immunochemistry
• Principal Investigator: Cinthya Kimori Okamoto
• Grantee: Cinthya Kimori Okamoto
• Host Institution: Instituto Butantan. Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Denise Vilarinho Tambourgi ; Paulo Lee Ho

Abstract

Loxoscelism is considered of great importance in public health for the high rate of reported cases of envenoming and more than 5,000 accidents are reported per year. The Loxosceles venom is a complex protein mixture. Studies have shown that the sphingomyelinase D (SMase D) is the main component of the venom, responsible for local and systemic manifestations by Loxosceles spider envenoming. In Brazil two types of sera used in the accidents are distributed by the Ministry of Health: the antiarachnid serum - produced by Butantan Institute, SP and the antiloxoscelic serum, produced by the Center for Production and Research of Immunobiology of Paraná. Studies of our group have shown that the cloning of sphingomyelinase D from venom gland would allow the production of a new antiserum capable of neutralizing the effects of the Loxosceles venoms using the recombinant toxins as antigens. Therefore, the goal of this project is to obtain recombinant sphingomyelinases D of Loxosceles spiders under Good Laboratory Practices to develop a new anti-loxoscelic serum. For this project, the antigens will be produced at the Special Pilot Laboratory of Research and Development in Veterinary Immunobiologicals (Butantan Institute), with the collaboration and supervision of the Immunochemistry Laboratory and with the support of the Division of Production and Technology Development of Butantan Institute. For both, the organization of the sphingomyelinase production laboratory, and the final product, will be supervised by the Section of Quality Assurance (Butantan Institute), in order to meet all the requirements recommended by ANVISA and the CTNBio. (AU)