Pharmacoligical characterization of the iranian Cerastes cerastes gasperettii (Reptilia: Ophidia: Viperidae) venom

Objective: Snake envenomation is common in tropical and subtropical countries of the Middle East areas including Iran. Cerastes cerastes gasperettii is a dangerous snake living in southwestern provinces of Iran. It causes massive edema at the bite site and coagulopathy leading to death if untreated. Methods: The purpose of this preliminary animal study was to evaluate the toxicity and proteomic of this venom for the first time in Iran. Moreover, the hemodynamic changes with intravenous injection of the venom were assessed and inotropic in addition to arrhythmogenic properties of this venom were investigated. Results: The estimated amount of the LD50 with intraperitoneal injection was slightly less than the similar experiment in Saudi Arabia (1.32 mg/kg versus 978 µg/kg body weight). There were 8 distinct protein bands between 12 and 66 kDa in SDS-PAGE analysis that were different with Moroccan experiment due to inter and intra species variation. Inotropic potencies were not significant since the lethal dose with intravenous injection was much lower than the Arabian experiment in guinea pigs (2.4 mg/kg versus 0.8 mg/kg). Conclusion: According to the low hemodynamic changes induced with the venom, it seems that coagulopathy and edema are the most dangerous effects of this rare snake in Iran.