A complex pattern of gene expression in tissue affected by viperid snake envenoming: the emerging role of autophagy-related genes

Cellular and inflammatory events were evaluated in mouse muscle after snake venoms Daboia russelii and Bothrops asper injection over time. A murine model of muscle necrosis based on venom injection was used to investigate up to 800 genes involved in fibrosis diseases and tissue regeneration using the multiplex RNA panel Fibrosis V2 from NanoString technology. In this study we have used the Nanostring technology to evaluate the patterns of gene expression in mouse skeletal muscle 1 hr, 6 hr and 24 hr after injection of the venoms of Bothrops asper and Daboia russelii, two medically relevant species in Latin America and Asia, respectively, with somewhat different clinical manifestations. We focused our analysis on genes related to extracellular matrix (ECM) metabolism, immune system, programmed cell death, and autophagy.