Investigative study on the mechanisms involved in hemostatic alterations caused by Bothrops erythromelas and Bothrops leucurus envenomation

• Grant number: 24/13080-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Public Health
• Principal Investigator: Karen de Morais Zani
• Grantee: Maria Amélia Farias Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Instituto Butantan. Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In 2023, in Brazil, 32,420 snakebite incidents were reported, with two-thirds of these occurrences happening in the North and Northeast regions, which also had the highest number of deaths due to snake envenomations that year. The only effective treatment for these envenomations is antivenom serum, produced by injecting animals with pools of different species of the snake genus relevant to the serum and isolating the antibodies produced by them. Snakes of the genus Bothrops are associated with about 87% of the snakebite incidents that occur in Brazil, and Bothrops bites also account for the majority of snake envenomations in the Northeast region. Two common Bothrops species in this region, not covered by the Bothrops antivenom and with limited studies related to them, are B. erythromelas and B. leucurus. Bothrops snake envenomation is characterized by local and systemic effects, and the venom has proteolytic, coagulant, and hemorrhagic action on the affected organism, with coagulopathy caused by Bothrops venom playing a central role in the pathophysiology of envenomation. For this reason, elucidating its mechanism of action is of great medical importance due to the lethality associated with hemorrhagic effects related to the coagulotoxicity of the venom. Since the literature lacks studies addressing the coagulotoxic function of the venom as a whole, investigating the hemostatic disorders caused by Bothrops snakes venom becomes of great medical relevance, and the use of B. erythromelas and B. leucurus species for such studies is justified by the high incidence of snakebite incidents in the Northeast region, where they are found.