COMPARISON OF BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF 3 NORTH-AMERICAN (CROTALIDAE) SNAKE-VENOMS

Lyophilized northern copperhead, eastern cottonmouth and timber rattlesnake venoms have been compared. All of these commercially available venom preparations have ld50 values in mice which approximate values reported for fresh venoms. The toxic components of all three appear to have molecular weights of greater than 1500. Both the northern copperhead and the eastern cottonmouth have more than one lethal component as revealed by testing the toxicity of fractions of these venoms obtained by Bio-Gel P-10 column chromatography. All of these venoms contain at least 10 protein components each, with molecular weights varying from 10,000 to 90,000 as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. All three venom preparations have been assayed for the presence of 12 different enzymatic activities. In addition the procoagulant and bradykinin-releasing activities of these venoms have been determined. All three of these venoms contain proteolytic activities and some autoproteolysis of venom components does occur if venom solutions are incubated for 24 hr at room temperature, but this can be negated by low temperatures. © 1979.