Antigenic relationship of hemorrhagic factors and proteases isolated from the venoms of three species of Bothrops snakes.

By comparative studies of the immunological properties of the metalloproteins (hemorrhagic factors and proteases) isolated from the venoms of Bothrops jaracaca, Bothrops neuwiedi and Bothrops moojeni, it was found that the hemorrhagic factors contain common antigenic determinants and the proteases were immunologically distinct entities. The rabbit antisera raised for the hemorrhagic factors not only neutralized the hemorrhagic activities of the respective factors but also activities of the other hemorrhagic factors. Although the homology among these proteins are not yet known, these studies have shown that the hemorrhagic factors must have a similar partial structure which includes the catalytic hemorrhagic active site.