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COMPARATIVE STUDY OF Cl DETERMINATION IN LONOMIA CATERPILLAR ANTIVENOM USING EDXRF

Simone Michaela Simons 1 ; Anicarine Ribeiro Leão 2 ; Ronaldo Zucatteli Mendonça 1 ; Fan Hui Wen 1 ; Cibele Bugno Zamboni 2
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The Lonomia obliqua Walker (L. obliqua) caterpillar species in the larval stage are able to cause severe envenomation in humans, as fatal hemorrhagic and acute renal injury [1]. The Instituto Butantan (São Paulo, Brazil) produces a specific antivenom to neutralize the procoagulant effects caused by the contact of the caterpillar bristles with skin. Usually specimens are brought from different regions of Brazil, mainly Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul and venom is obtained from cutting the bristles to produce an extract that is centrifuged to obtain a liquid containing the venom components. Horses are usually immunized with different extracts and hiperimmune plasma is obtained to be purified. Until now, there is no data to assess if the elemental composition of the extracts are homogenous, and if eventual differences would interfere in characteristics of the antivenom produced. Recent measurements identified mainly Cl was majority [2]. In this investigation, we checked the Cl range of the antigen obtained from Paraná (standardize the antigen) using EDXRF. The XRF measurements were performed using MINI X-ray spectrometer (PXRFS) from Amptek (Bedford, MA, USA) model X-123 SDD with Ag X-ray tube. The characteristics X-ray fluorescent intensity of Cl was measured with a Si detector (Si Drift 25 mm2 x 500 μm/ 0.5 mil. The excitation was performed using 30 kV and 5 µA excitation for a counting time of 100s. The quantitative analysis was performed using WinQxas software program (IAEA, version 1.3). A comparison using data from Neutron Activation Analysis emphasizes a good agreement, suggesting the viability of using the compact spectrometer to monitor the antigens from different origins in fast and efficient way. These data can be used to standardize a specific Lonomia venom coming from different regions of Brazil, in addition to the biochemical characterization and biological activity measured in each batch of Lonomia venom produced, based in Cl range.