Toxicology and applied pharmacology
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Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. · Oct 2012
Pre-clinical studies of toxin-specific nanobodies: evidence of in vivo efficacy to prevent fatal disturbances provoked by scorpion envenoming.
Scorpions represent a significant threat to humans and animals in various countries throughout the world. Recently, we introduced Nanobodies (Nbs) to combat more efficiently scorpion envenoming and demonstrated the performance of NbAahIF12 and NbAahII10 to neutralize scorpion toxins of Androctonus australis hector venom. A bispecific Nb construct (NbF12-10) comprising these two Nbs is far more protective than the classic Fab'(2) based therapy and is the most efficient antivenom therapy against scorpion sting in preclinical studies. ⋯ Histology confirms that NbF12-10 prevents lung and heart lesions of treated mice after envenoming. In conjunction, in this preclinical study, we provide proof of concept that NbF12-10 prevents effectively the fatal disturbances induced by Androctonus venom, and that the Nanobody based therapeutic has a potential to substitute the classic Fab'(2) based product as immunotherapeutic in scorpion envenoming. Further clinical study using larger cohorts of animals should be considered to confirm the full protecting potential of our NbF12-10.