Development of an ELISA to assess the potency of horse therapeutic polyvalent antibothropic antivenom

Abstract The objective of this study was the search for a suitable venom antigen to be used in an in vitro alternative immunoassay, to the standard antivenom neutralization assay using mice. Bothrops jararaca venom was fractionated in DEAE-Sephacel columns and the fractions were tested for a correlation between antibody capture enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) absorbance values and the ` in vivo ' antivenom potency. Individual antivenoms from 14 horses and 15 separate FUNED polyspecific Bothrops ampouled antivenoms (final product) were used. Fractions showing the higher correlations were further chromatographed in a Sephadex G-75 column and again tested for the correlation. Two fractions with haemorrhagic activity displayed a correlation of r =0.77 and r =0.8 against the individual horse antivenom sera and of r =0.79 and r =0.8 for the ampouled antivenom. For all results p 2 activity showed a correlation of r =0.66 ( p r =0.56 ( p