Analysis of fatty acids released by crotoxin in rat brain synaptosomes

Crotoxin, the main toxin of Crotalus durissus terrificus venom, exerts its lethal effect by blocking neurotransmission at the neuromuscular junction l evel through a triphasic mechanism. This effect seems to depend on its phos pholipasic activity, suggesting that the mechanism of neurotransmission blo ckage may be related to fatty acids release in specific sites of the nervou s terminal. In this work, we purified the fatty acids released by crotoxin' s activity and this outline was compared with other phospholipases A(2), in cluding CB, a subunit of crotoxin. Our results show a higher release of pal mitate and arachidonate by crotoxin when compared to other phospholipases A (2). Since palmitate has a role in protein acylation processes and arachido nate participates in signal transduction events, these mechanisms may be re lated to the neurotoxic actions of crotoxin. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.