However, commercial anti-serum against venomous fish is only available for the stonefish Synanceja trachynis (StoneFish AntiVenom, SFAV), which together with Synanceja verrucosa and Synanceja horrida, are the deadliest fish in the world ( Khoo et al., 1992 and Church and Hodgson, 2001). The similarities between the envenomation symptoms and the pharmacological activities induced by stone- and scorpionfish venoms (Kreger,

1991, Khoo et al., 1992, Garnier et al., 1995, Carrijo et al., 2005 and Gomes et al., 2010), prompted us to investigate whether in vivo cardiovascular and inflammatory activities of S. plumieri venom could be neutralized by SFAV. After injection of S. plumieri venom in hind paw of mice, a local inflammatory lesion, characterized by intense edema and pain, was observed. The intensity and persistence of the edema were dose-dependent. For Ku-0059436 all doses tested, the maximal edematogenic response occurred 30 min after venom injection and it remained significantly elevated over 6, 24 or 72 h Epacadostat solubility dmso according to the dose administered. In addition, we observed a pronounced nociceptive response which reached its maximum at doses ≥15 μg/paw. This local reaction is similar to that observed on human victims of accidents with scorpionfish S. plumieri ( Haddad et al.,

2003). Similar inflammatory responses have also been observed in previous studies with other fish venoms. Magalhães et al. (2006) described that both stingrays Potamotrygon cf. scobina and P. gr. orbignyi venoms induce significant edematogenic activity, which was sustained up to 10 h after injection. Experimental

studies carried out with Thalassophryne nattereri and T. maculosa venoms showed that doses ≤30 μg of venom/paw induce intense edema and nociception ( Lopes-Ferreira et al., 1998 and Sosa-Rosales et al., 2005b). The Scatophagus argus fish venom also produces dose-dependent edema 5-Fluoracil price until 48 h after venom injection ( Sivan et al., 2007). Besides the inflammatory response, S. plumieri venom caused profound alterations on the cardiovascular system in vivo as reported previously ( Carrijo et al., 2005 and Gomes et al., 2010). The cardiovascular response was characterized by a hypertensive response and bradycardia. Both inflammatory and cardiovascular responses induced by SpV were neutralized by SFAV. The same assays were carried out with antibothropic antivenom, which was not able to neutralize the SpV cardiovascular effects, suggesting the SFAV specificity (data not shown). Pre-mixing the S. plumieri venom with the stonefish antivenom resulted in a protective effect, which was achieved at ratios of 1/1 and 1/1.5 μg protein of venom/U of antivenom. This neutralisation activity demonstrates that the pro-inflammatory and cardioactive venom compounds are mainly proteins. These results are in accordance with those of Carlson et al.