IN-VITRO ASSAYS FOR NEUTRALIZATION OF SNAKE VENOM USING HERBAL DRUGS: A REVIEW

Snakebite is a major health hazard that leads to high mortality rate, especially in India. The present review article focuses on the point of view of different in–vitro neutralization assays that serve as an index for assessing the status of therapy. For this purpose bibliographic and scientific literature articles in indexed journal, databases were comprehensively researched, and contemporary articles were studied from different abstracting and indexing systems like PubMed using relevant keywords. It was found that some of the in-vitro assays like Phospholipase A2, Hemorrhagic activity assay, agglutination assay for potency assessment, general proteolytic activity assay, snake venom metalloprotease activity (SVMP), hemolytic activity, neutralization of serum inhibitory activity assay, neutralization of fibrinolytic activity, inhibition of venom cardiotoxic activity assay and brine shrimp lethality test are prevalent in use. Performing these in–vitro tests is essential for the development of therapy against envenomation. Anti snake venom serum (ASVS) for snake bite therapeutics is available but suffers from many drawbacks; herbal plants provide a solid platform for the natural treatment of this serious issue. Herbal medications have excellent potential to treat snake bite. Herbal medicinal plants are an important element of indigenous medical systems globally. Many of the active plant constituents are promising contenders for the development of antivenom drug molecules. So our objective is to find different alternative in-vitro processes for antivenom activity. The rationale behind choosing the in-vitro assays is to enable to generate basic data and understand the probable basic mechanism of snake venom and herbal anti snake venom without sacrificing or using invasive procedures on the experimental animal. Keywords: Envenomation, Neutralization assays, In–vitro processes, Hemorrhagic activity, Metalloprotease (SVMP) activity, Brine shrimp lethality test