The in vitro neuromuscular activity of Indo-Pacific sea-snake venoms: Efficacy of two commercially available antivenoms

Abstract

We examined the neurotoxicity of the following sea snake venoms: Enhydrina schistosa (geographical variants from Weipa and Malaysia), Lapemis curtus (Weipa and Malaysia), Laticauda colubrina, Aipysurus laevis, Aipysurus fuscus and Aipysurus foliosquamatus. Venom from a terrestrial snake, Notechis scutatus (tiger snake), was used as a reference. All venoms (1 and 3 μg/ml) abolished indirect twitches of the chick biventer cervicis muscle and significantly inhibited responses to ACh (1 mM) and CCh (20 μM), but not KCl (40 mM), indicating the presence of post-synaptic toxins. Prior administration (10 min) of CSL sea snake antivenom (1unit/ml) attenuated the twitch blockade produced by N. scutatu..