Early treatment with intranasal neostigmine reduces mortality in a mouse model of Naja naja (Indian Cobra) envenomation

Lewin, M. R., Samuel, S. P., Wexler, D. S., Bickler, P., Vaiyapuri, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6006-6517 and Mensh, B. D. (2014) Early treatment with intranasal neostigmine reduces mortality in a mouse model of Naja naja (Indian Cobra) envenomation. Journal of Tropical Medicine, 2014. 131835. ISSN 1687-9686 doi: 10.1155/2014/131835

Abstract/Summary

Objective. Most snakebite deaths occur prior to hospital arrival; yet inexpensive, effective, and easy to administer out-of-hospital treatments do not exist. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors can be therapeutic in neurotoxic envenomations when administered intravenously, but nasally delivered drugs could facilitate prehospital therapy for these patients. We tested the feasibility of this idea in experimentally envenomed mice. Methods. Mice received intraperitoneal injections of Naja naja venom 2.5 to 10 times the estimated LD50 and then received 5