Comparación entre las técnicas de neutralización en ratón y E.L.I.S.A para determinar la potencia del anti-veneno crotalus durissus terrificus

Abstract

Reports in the literature (3, 12, 13) suggest that it is feasible to replace with an ELISA test, the more cumbersome and expensive method of in-vivo neutralization for the assessment of the potency of antivenoms.  In this paper we compare both methods for the antivenom Crotalus durissus terrificus. We used purified Gamma-globulins and complete sera, and with neither was found any correlation between the methods tested. A plausible explanation is that while the in-vivo neutralization test is measuring antitoxin antibodies the ELISA test is measuring total antibodies. We suggest to verify the correlation using pure toxin as the antigen  for ELISA. We do not recommend at this stage, contrary to other authors suggestions (3), the use of ELISA for assessment of titers of antivenom Crotalus durissus terrificus.