Snake Venom Proteomics, Immunoreactivity and Toxicity Neutralization Studies for the Asiatic Mountain Pit Vipers, , , and Hime Habu, .

Snakebite envenomation is a serious neglected tropical disease, and its management is often complicated by the diversity of snake venoms. In Asia, pit vipers of the species complex are medically important venomous snakes whose venom properties have not been investigated in depth. This study characterized the venom proteomes of (West Malaysia), (northern Vietnam, southern China), and (Okinawa, Japan) by applying liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, which detected a high abundance of snake venom serine proteases (SVSP, constituting 40-60% of total venom proteins), followed by phospholipases A, snake venom metalloproteinases of mainly P-III class, L-amino acid oxidases, and toxins from other protein families which were less abundant. The venoms exhibited different procoagulant activities in human plasma, with potency decreasing from > > . The procoagulant nature of venom confirms that consumptive coagulopathy underlies the pathophysiology of pit viper envenomation. The hetero-specific antivenoms monovalent antivenom (GbMAV) and monovalent antivenom (TaMAV) were immunoreactive toward the venoms, and cross-neutralized their procoagulant activities, albeit at variably limited efficacy. In the absence of species-specific antivenom, these hetero-specific antivenoms may be useful in treating coagulotoxic envenomation caused by the different snakes in their respective regions.