After washing, 100 μL of o-phenylenediamine (0.33 mg/mL in citrate buffer, pH 5.2, in the presence of 0.04% hydrogen peroxide) was added to the wells. The reaction was stopped after 20 min by the addition of 20 μL of a 1:20 sulfuric acid solution. Absorbance values were determined at 490 nm using an ELISA plate reader (BIO-RAD, 680 models). Duplicate readings were taken for all samples and the means were calculated. For the immunoblotting, an SDS-PAGE gel using H. lunatus venom was run according to the method of Laemmli (1970) using 12.5% gels and transferred onto Nivolumab in vivo nitrocellulose membrane (

Towbin et al., 1979). The membrane was blocked with PBS-Tween 0.3% for 1 h. After washing three times for 5 min with PBS-Tween 0.05%, the membrane was incubated with anti-H. lunatus rabbit serum (1:1500) for 1 h and 30 min. The membrane was washed (PBS-Tween 0.05%) more three times and immunoreactive proteins were detected using anti-rabbit IgG conjugated to peroxidase (1:8000) for 1 h at room temperature. After washing three times for 5 min with PBS-Tween 0.05%, blots were developed using DAB/chloronaphthol according to manufacturer’s instructions. The lethality of the H. lunatus soluble venom to mammals was examined using mice. After intracranial

(i.c.) and intraperitoneal injection (i.p.) toxic and lethal effects were observed. The LD50 value was determined as 0.1 mg/kg and 21.55 mg/kg (respectively). Injected mice displayed typical symptoms of intoxication such as excitability, agitation, salivation, eye secretions, sweating, convulsions and paralysis of legs. The symptoms lasted for 30–120 min before death. The observed Selleckchem AP24534 symptoms closely resemble those produced by the venom of Buthidae scorpions of the genera Centruroides or Tityus ( Possani et al.,

1977). The venoms from some species of Brazilian scorpions were analyzed regarding their lethality in mice by Nishikawa and co-workers, in 1994 via intraperitoneal injection, the same used by us. In this study, the venoms were grouped Farnesyltransferase as highly toxic Tityus stigmurus (LD50 = 0.773 mg/kg), Tityus bahiensis (LD50 = 1.062 mg/kg) and T. serrulatus (LD50 = 1.160 mg/kg); moderately toxic Tityus cambridgei (LD50 = 12.136 mg/kg) and practically non-toxic Rhopalurus agamemnon (LD50 = 36.363 mg/kg) and Brotheas amazonicus (LD50 = 90.909 mg/kg). In view of the results observed in our experiments and compared to the previous data, H. lunatus venom can be classified as moderately toxic. The value found for LD50 of the venom of H. lunatus (i.p. route) was more than three times lower than that found by Zavaleta et al. (1981). This divergence can be explained by the fact that in our experiments the venom collected was immediately diluted in ultrapure water (milli Q), pooled and stored at −20 °C until use and never lyophilized. The proteolytic activity (caseinase) of H. lunatus venom was detected, for the first time, by the dimethylcasein method ( Lin et al.