Innovative Immunization Strategies for Antivenom Development
Snakes, scorpions, and spiders are venomous animals that pose a threat to human health, and severe envenomings from the bites or stings of these animals must be treated with antivenom. Current antivenoms are based on plasma-derived immunoglobulins or immunoglobulin fragments from hyper-immunized ani...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2018-11-01
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| Series: | Toxins |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/10/11/452 |
| _version_ | 1811279307009425408 |
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| author | Erick Bermúdez-Méndez Albert Fuglsang-Madsen Sofie Føns Bruno Lomonte José María Gutiérrez Andreas Hougaard Laustsen |
| author_facet | Erick Bermúdez-Méndez Albert Fuglsang-Madsen Sofie Føns Bruno Lomonte José María Gutiérrez Andreas Hougaard Laustsen |
| author_sort | Erick Bermúdez-Méndez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Snakes, scorpions, and spiders are venomous animals that pose a threat to human health, and severe envenomings from the bites or stings of these animals must be treated with antivenom. Current antivenoms are based on plasma-derived immunoglobulins or immunoglobulin fragments from hyper-immunized animals. Although these medicines have been life-saving for more than 120 years, opportunities to improve envenoming therapy exist. In the later decades, new biotechnological tools have been applied with the aim of improving the efficacy, safety, and affordability of antivenoms. Within the avenues explored, novel immunization strategies using synthetic peptide epitopes, recombinant toxins (or toxoids), or DNA strings as immunogens have demonstrated potential for generating antivenoms with high therapeutic antibody titers and broad neutralizing capacity. Furthermore, these approaches circumvent the need for venom in the production process of antivenoms, thereby limiting some of the complications associated with animal captivity and venom collection. Finally, an important benefit of innovative immunization approaches is that they are often compatible with existing antivenom manufacturing setups. In this review, we compile all reported studies examining venom-independent innovative immunization strategies for antivenom development. In addition, a brief description of toxin families of medical relevance found in snake, scorpion, and spider venoms is presented, as well as how biochemical, bioinformatic, and omics tools could aid the development of next-generation antivenoms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T00:52:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8ad3ab1b04d644e48406b4d83b43c9eb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-6651 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T00:52:20Z |
| publishDate | 2018-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Toxins |
| spelling | doaj.art-8ad3ab1b04d644e48406b4d83b43c9eb2022-12-22T03:09:50ZengMDPI AGToxins2072-66512018-11-01101145210.3390/toxins10110452toxins10110452Innovative Immunization Strategies for Antivenom DevelopmentErick Bermúdez-Méndez0Albert Fuglsang-Madsen1Sofie Føns2Bruno Lomonte3José María Gutiérrez4Andreas Hougaard Laustsen5Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José 11501-2060, Costa RicaDepartment of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, DenmarkDepartment of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, DenmarkInstituto Clodomiro Picado, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José 11501-2060, Costa RicaInstituto Clodomiro Picado, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José 11501-2060, Costa RicaDepartment of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, DenmarkSnakes, scorpions, and spiders are venomous animals that pose a threat to human health, and severe envenomings from the bites or stings of these animals must be treated with antivenom. Current antivenoms are based on plasma-derived immunoglobulins or immunoglobulin fragments from hyper-immunized animals. Although these medicines have been life-saving for more than 120 years, opportunities to improve envenoming therapy exist. In the later decades, new biotechnological tools have been applied with the aim of improving the efficacy, safety, and affordability of antivenoms. Within the avenues explored, novel immunization strategies using synthetic peptide epitopes, recombinant toxins (or toxoids), or DNA strings as immunogens have demonstrated potential for generating antivenoms with high therapeutic antibody titers and broad neutralizing capacity. Furthermore, these approaches circumvent the need for venom in the production process of antivenoms, thereby limiting some of the complications associated with animal captivity and venom collection. Finally, an important benefit of innovative immunization approaches is that they are often compatible with existing antivenom manufacturing setups. In this review, we compile all reported studies examining venom-independent innovative immunization strategies for antivenom development. In addition, a brief description of toxin families of medical relevance found in snake, scorpion, and spider venoms is presented, as well as how biochemical, bioinformatic, and omics tools could aid the development of next-generation antivenoms.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/10/11/452animal envenomingantivenom developmentimmunizationsynthetic epitoperecombinant toxinDNA immunizationneutralizationomics technologiesbioinformaticshigh-density peptide microarray technologysnakebite envenomingscorpion envenomingspider envenoming |
| spellingShingle | Erick Bermúdez-Méndez Albert Fuglsang-Madsen Sofie Føns Bruno Lomonte José María Gutiérrez Andreas Hougaard Laustsen Innovative Immunization Strategies for Antivenom Development Toxins animal envenoming antivenom development immunization synthetic epitope recombinant toxin DNA immunization neutralization omics technologies bioinformatics high-density peptide microarray technology snakebite envenoming scorpion envenoming spider envenoming |
| title | Innovative Immunization Strategies for Antivenom Development |
| title_full | Innovative Immunization Strategies for Antivenom Development |
| title_fullStr | Innovative Immunization Strategies for Antivenom Development |
| title_full_unstemmed | Innovative Immunization Strategies for Antivenom Development |
| title_short | Innovative Immunization Strategies for Antivenom Development |
| title_sort | innovative immunization strategies for antivenom development |
| topic | animal envenoming antivenom development immunization synthetic epitope recombinant toxin DNA immunization neutralization omics technologies bioinformatics high-density peptide microarray technology snakebite envenoming scorpion envenoming spider envenoming |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/10/11/452 |
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