Comparative Study on the Lethal Dose; Protein, Amino Acid, and Elemental Contents of Venoms of Bitis arietans, Echis ocellatus, Naja katiensis, Naja haje and Naja nigricollis from Northern Nigeria

Snake venoms are specialized cocktail of enzymatic and non-enzymatic proteins which plays a vital role in understanding the nature of the venoms and provides an avenue to understand the pathophysiology of envenoming. Therefore, the aim of this research is to analyse the venoms of the five most medically important snakes of Northern Nigeria for their LD, protein, amino acid, and 50 elemental composition respectively. Chick embryonated eggs were used to determine the lethal doses. A wavelength of 400 to 760 nm was used to determine the cations present in the venom. Amino acid concentrations were determined spectrophotometrically using ninhydrin chemical reaction, while sodium dodycile sulphate poly-acrilamide gel electrophoresis was used to study the protein bands. Echis ocellatus had the highest LD of 2.714 while Bitis arietans, Naja 50 nigricollis, Naja katiensis and Naja haje had LD of 0.325 mg/kg, 0.923, 0.181 and 0.625 mg/kg, 50 respectively. Calcium had the highest concentration in all the venoms studied except for Naja haje and Naja katiensis where magnesium was higher. Zinc had the lowest concentration in all the venoms except for the venom of Naja haje where zinc was having a higher concentration than calcium. In this study, In this study, the protein bands for elapids fell between 25 to 110 kDa and below, while the viperids had their bands between 75 to 110kDa and 25 to 50 kDa. Cysteine profile is conserved in all the elapids venom studied, Lysine is relatively high in all the venoms, while negatively charged aspartic acid and glutamic acid had about the highest concentrations in all the venoms studied