Abstract

INCREASED NS1 ANTIGEN EXPRESSION BY DENGUE VIRUS INFECTED VERO CELLS UNDER INFLUENCE OF ULTRA DILUTED TIMBER RATTLESNAKE VENOM (CROTALUS 6C)

Moonmoon Sinha, Enakshi Roy, Shailja Katoch, Urmita Chakarborty, *Satadal Das, Debabrata Sarkar, Debadatta Nayak, Anil Khurana, Raj Kumar Manchanda

ABSTRACT

Timber rattle snake (Crotalus horridus) venom (TRV) contains bioactive agents like phopholipases A2, serine proteinases, bradykinin potentizing and natriuretic C type peptides, which may act directly or indirectly on different enveloped viruses to diminish their infection. In this experiment ultra diluted alcoholic extract of TRV (~ 1 pg/μL, Crotalus 6c in homeopathic pharmacopoeia, dilution 10-12) was added to Vero cell culture medium, after Dengue NS1 antigen positive serum with high viral load (>106 copies/mL) was applied on it. The study was done in triplicates with different serum samples along with virus and vehicle controls. The dose of the TRV extract was predetermined by MTT assay. It was found that ultra diluted TRV extract increases NS1 antigen significantly in comparison to the controls. Although the exact mechanism is not known, it may be due to the potent antiviral agent phopholipase A2 in snake venom, which may destroy envelope of the virus exposing RNA genome and releasing NS1 antigen in the medium.

Keywords: Dengue NS1 antigen, timber rattlesnake, MTT assay, Vero cell line.