Ann Microbiol Immunol | Volume 1, Issue 2 | Research Article | Open Access
Arianna Yglesias-Rivera and Alexis Díaz-García*
Department of Research, Laboratories of Biopharmaceuticals and Chemistries Productions (LABIOFAM), Cuba
*Correspondance to: Alexis Díaz-García
Fulltext PDFIntroduction: Scorpion venoms significantly increases the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines that contributes to immunological imbalance. However, there is no evidence about the capabilities of Cuban scorpion Rhopalurus junceus (R. junceus) venom to modulate the levels of inflammation-related cytokines.
Methods: One scorpion venom dose (3.2 mg/kg) was administrated during one or ten days by intraperitoneal route to BALB/c healthy mice. The pro-inflammatory (TNFα, IL-1β, IL-12) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines levels in sera were determined by ELISA after 2, 4, 6, 8 and 24 hours for the unique or the last injection of multiple scorpion venom administration. Kruskall-Wallis’s test was used for different time period comparison.
Results: Administration of a single dose of R. junceus scorpion venom does not increase the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. While IL-10 level increase significantly (p<0.05) only after 4 hours of single dose administration of scorpion venom. Additionally, there were no changes in pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokine levels, at different times evaluated after 10 consecutive administration of scorpion venom dose.
Conclusion: R. junceus scorpion venom does not cause an imbalance between pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokine levels in healthy BALB/c mice, unlike other scorpions belonging to the Buthidae family.
Rhopalurus junceus scorpion venom; Inflammation-related cytokines; Mice; ELISA
Yglesias-Rivera A, Díaz-García A. Effect of Rhopalurus junceus Scorpion Venom on Inflammation-Related Cytokines in Healthy BALB/C Mice. Ann Microbiol Immunol. 2018; 1(2): 1007.