Antigenic properties of snake venom cardiotoxins

Abstract

In this dissertation an innitial investigation was made to lo~ate antigenic determinants of cardiotoxin vll 1 from N.nivea with a future view of applying the knowledge obtained in the design of synthetic vaccines. The conformation and surface properties of this toxin differs from that of proteins of which the immunological properties are known, so that this information cannot be directly applied.Parallel to the investigation of the cardiotoxin, a similar study was carried out on bovine phospholipase A2 , which was used as control in the experimental work. Peptides derived from the sequences of N. nivea vII1 and bovine phospholipase A2 , were synthesized chemically. The conformation of these peptides in various solvents, was determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy, for relating immunological properties to epitope structure. Antiserum was raised against the two proteins, and the reactivity thereof towards the synthetic peptides determined. ...