Avanços sobre vacinas e anti-soros contra veneno de serpentes e estudo de epítopos para a família de toxinas fosfolipase A2

Abstract

Animal venoms are produced by specialized glands into their predators and injected in the prey, releasing secretions rich in toxins that are harmful to health. Those venomous animals trigger countless accidents around the world. These include snakebite accidents, which have been included by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the list of neglected tropical diseases. This public health problem is caused by snakes whose toxins include proteins such as phospholipases A2 (PLA2), enzymes that are widely present in venom and trigger various physiological effects. The treatment recommended by the Ministry of Health is the application of antiophidic serum, which is manufacture based on hyperimmunization carried out on horses capable of neutralizing the action of the venom. However, this procedure has some disadvantages that end up hampering its benefits and effectiveness for victims. Thus, new methods of producing antivenom have been developed with the aim of creating alternative therapies that can improve and minimize problems. Consequently, in silico studies of immunobiologicals are becoming an option to facilitate the development of new antivenoms. This project therefore proposes the use of computational tools to predict epitopes in snake venoms, with a focus on the PLA2 family. Extracting PLA2 protein sequences from databases such as UniProt and the Immune Epitope Database in order to make predictions and classify epitope candidates. As a result, we obtained 17 candidate positions based on in silico analyses and experimental evidence from the literature. It is expect that these approaches will support studies in this area, as they will become an useful tool for developing the next generation of antivenoms.