In this work, we examined the action of two South American coralsnake (Micrurus corallinus and Micrurus dumerilii carinicauda) venoms on rat heart function in the absence and presence of treatment with Brazilian coralsnake antivenom (CAV) and varespladib (VPL), a potent phospholipase A2 inhibitor. Anesthetized male Wistar rats were injected with saline (control) or a single dose of venom (1.5 mg/kg, i.m.) and monitored for alterations in echocardiographic parameters, serum CK-MB levels and cardiac histomorphology, the latter using a combination of fractal dimension and histopathological methods. Neither of the venoms caused cardiac functional alterations 2 h after venom injection; however, M. corallinus venom caused tachycardia 2 h after venom injection, with CAV (given i.p. at an antivenom:venom ratio of 1:1.5, v/w), VPL (0.5 mg/kg, i.p.) and CAV + VPL preventing this increase. Both venoms increased the cardiac lesional score and serum CK-MB levels compared to saline-treated rats, but only the combination of CAV + VPL prevented these alterations, although VPL alone was able to attenuate the increase in CK-MB caused by M. corallinus venom. Micrurus corallinus venom increased the heart fractal dimension measurement, but none of the treatments prevented this alteration. In conclusion, M. corallinus and M. d. carinicauda venoms caused no major cardiac functional alterations at the dose tested, although M. corallinus venom caused transient tachycardia. Both venoms caused some cardiac morphological damage, as indicated by histomorphological analyses and the increase in circulating CK-MB levels. These alterations were consistently attenuated by a combination of CAV and VPL.
Keywords: Antivenom; Cardiotoxicity; Coralsnake venom; M. corallinus; M. d. carinicauda; Varespladib.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.