DEVELOPMENT OF IMMUNOASSAYS FOR DETERMINATION OF CIRCULATING VENOM ANTIGENS DURING ENVENOMATIONS BY CORAL SNAKES (MICRURUS SPECIES)

A reverse agglutination assay and two capture enzyme-linked immunoassa ys (ELISAs) for the quantitative determination of Micrurus nigrocinctu s nigrocinctus venom antigens in fluids were developed using affinity- purified polyclonal antibodies and a cocktail of three monoclonal anti bodies, The lower detection limit was 0.3 mg/ml for the reverse agglut ination assay and 4 ng/ml for the capture ELISAs. The optical densitie s of both ELISAs correlated very well with venom concentrations in the range 4-333 ng/ml (r = 0.99). The ability of these assays to detect v enoms of several medically important Micrurus species was studied, Bes ides detecting homologous venom, both ELISAs were also useful to quant itate venom from M. fulvius, M. dumerilii carinicauda and M. alleni. U sing biotinylated polyclonal antibodies, M. n. nigrocinctus venom anti gens were detected in sera or plasma from rabbits and mice during expe rimental envenomations with lethal and sublethal venom doses. The assa ys described in this work are promising tests to estimate the severity of poisoning in envenomations by the most important coral snakes of N orth and Central America. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.