Geographical origin and antigenicity of venom. Intraspecies proteomic and immunological analysis of Naja mossambica venom.

The main objective of the project is to find the reason why antivenoms commonly used in treatments of Naja mossambica bites are not effective in Eswatini and Mozambique, whereas they exhibit normal activity in other countries of southern Africa. The main hypothesis here assumes that intra-species differences in protein composition of venoms from different part of the continent are the main cause of observed diversity in antivenom efficacy. In the course of the project, there is also a plan to identify the specific toxins that differ analyzed venoms in reactivity towards antivenom immunoglobulins.

本项目的核心目标为明确：当前常用于治疗莫桑比克眼镜蛇（Naja mossambica）咬伤的抗蛇毒素（antivenom），为何在斯威士兰（Eswatini）与莫桑比克（Mozambique）境内失效，而在南部非洲其他国家仍可发挥正常药效。本研究提出的核心假说认为，非洲大陆不同区域的莫桑比克眼镜蛇蛇毒，其蛋白质组成存在种内（intra-species）差异，这是观测到的抗蛇毒素效力差异的主要成因。此外，在本项目实施过程中，还计划识别出受试蛇毒中，在与抗蛇毒素免疫球蛋白（immunoglobulin）的反应性方面存在差异的特异性毒素。