الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Scorpion venoms are very complex mixtures of different peptides and proteins which could cause toxicological responses and may provide templates for drug design and development. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that such analysis is performed on the scorpion A. bicolor venom where there is no information about pharmacological and physiopathological effects of this species. Therefore, the present detailed study aims to use a combination of pharmacologic and physiologic approaches to evaluate the biological activities of the Egyptian scorpion. To evaluate pharmacological activity of Egyptian scorpion A.bicolor venom 1/5 LD50 (0.32µg/g. B.wt) and 1/10 LD50 (0.16 µg/g. B.wt) of scorpion venom were used. However, to estimate the toxic effect of A. bicolor scorpion venom, biochemical changes, cytotoxic assays as well as histopathological alternations induced by scorpion venom were studied in adult male mice after 6h (the time reveled a strong therapeutic effect in pharamacological tests) from injection of 1/5 LD50 (0.32µg/ g. B.wt) via two different routes of administration: intraperitoneal and intramuscular injections. In addition, cardiotoxicity and mode of action of A. bicolor venom on isolated toad’s heart were investigated by direct application of scorpion venom (0.5 µg /ml Ringer solution) into isolated toad’s heart. The results indicat that A.bicolor scorpion venom showed pharmacological properties (anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic and analgesic), caused biochemical and histopathological changes especially after i.m injection as well as induced direct cardiotoxic effect. |