Page 164 - 00. Complete Version - Progress Report IPEN 2014-2016

164 Nuclear Science and Technology | Progress Report

mental requirement to start the pre-clinical that found in the Southeast region). In this
tests of news drugs. The Energy Dispersive study, the inorganic elements concentration
X-Ray Fluorescence Technique (EDXRF) was in blood of mice immunized with five differ-
applied to determine Fe concentrations in ent species of Bothrops snake venoms were
whole blood samples of twelve mice strains. investigated using NAA and XRF techniques.
This procedure has been chosen because it re- These results were compared to human esti-
quires a small amount of blood for Fe analyses mates to prevent damage, due to toxicity of
(ten times less comparatively to the conven- these elements in the immunological therapy.
tional tests performed in serum), an import-
ant condition when the biological material is Investigation of the antigen used for
scarce (the mice weight is about 20 mg and to- the production of antilonomic serum
tal body blood is 1.2 mL). Fe concentration re-
sult for C57BL/6J mice strain (usually used for The caterpillar Lonomia obliqua Walker (L. obli-
pre - clinical drug tests) shows that it is not in qua) species is very poisonous and has the abil-
agreement with human Fe levels estimation. ity to cause serious and fatal hemorrhagic ef-
The present results suggest that A/J and BAL- fects in humans after contact. In the absence
B/c strains are more suitable. In addition, the of medical attention, which requires the ad-
possibility to select a similar strain as a refer- ministration of antilonomic serum (antidote),
ence facilitates and reduces the cost in pre-clin- it can lead the patient to death in days.
ical tests of new drugs.
These caterpillars live in forest regions, but
Analytic techniques to assist the anti- can be found in rural areas and in existing
Bothrops serum production in Brazil vegetation in urban areas: mango, avocado,

guava, peach, araticum, ipê, cedar and aroei-
According to the World Health Organization ra. They have nocturnal habits and live ~ 200
(WHO), the number of deaths by poisonous days. During the day, they are grouped in the
animals in developed countries is significant. trunk, at rest. At night, these caterpillars feed
The situation in Brazil has been monitored by on the leaves of the host plant. Since 1996, the
SINAN (Sistema de Informação de Agravos e Butantan Institute (IBu, Research Center, São
Notificação) and currently 400 accidents occur Paulo city) produces antilonomic serum (an-
every month, of which 80% are due to venom- tidote), to reverse such effects, using caterpil-
ous snakebites of the genus Bothrops. To meet lars mainly from Paraná (PR), where the prev-
the large number of incidences, Instituto Bu- alence of incidents is high. However, in recent
tantan (research center, SP city, Brazil) has pro- years, the expansion and destruction of natu-
duced various types of antivenomous includ- ral ecosystems provide their growth in others
ing anti-Bothrops serum. However, due to the regions of the country (mainly Santa Catarina,
high diversity of snakes (~380 species), a large São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul). Nowadays,
portion of them being venomous, it can some- the number of accidents more than tripled in
times result in an inappropriate antivenom. In these regions. Considering that, the efficacy
addition, recent investigation showed that the and safety of antivenom immunotherapy is
Bothrops venom of certain species can vary sig- closely related to process control, it is desir-
nificantly according to the geographic distri- able to establish procedures that are repro-
bution (in the Northern region, the snake poi- ducible and traceable. Aiming to standardize
son of jararaca is 30 times more potent than the antigen obtained from different regions,

Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares