Progress and improvement of the manufacturing process of snake antivenom

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Abstract

Antivenoms have been used successfully for more than a century and up to now constitute the only effective
treatment for snakebites .The production of antivenin started long time ago when the calmette was prepared
the antivenom in 1894.The method currently used to prepare antivenom by most of the manufacturers are
originated from the method of Pope which was develop in 1938. Several new approaches in the production of
antivenom have been proposed to produce IgG, F(ab)2, F(ab) antivenin to improve their quality .These
improvement include complete or partial modification in the antivenom production regarding animal,
immunization protocols , new adjuvants in hyperimmunization of animals , purification processes ( caprylic
acid ,chromatography , diafiltration and ulterafiltration ),enzymatic digestion of IgG (pepsin, papain ) and
fractionation of venom .When the IgG is digested enzymatically, different fragments are obtained depending
on the enzyme used, that is, if papain is used, three fragments are obtained, the crystallizing fragment (Fc) and
two antigen-binding fragments F(ab) and, if pepsin is used, one F(ab')2 fragment is obtained, while the
crystallizing fragment is digested. Fab and F(ab)2 fragments conserve their capacity to specifically bind to the
antigen that gave rise to them.

Keywords

Archives of Razi Institute
Volume 68, Issue 1
May and June 2013
Pages 1-10

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