Hemolytic activity of HPLC purified fraction from H. lepturus Khuzestan scorpion venom

Scorpion envenomation is a public health problem in many countries. Scorpions are second only to snakes in causing human fatalities from envenomation. Species of scorpions capable of inflicting fatal stings are living in North and South Africa, the Middle East, India, America, Trinidad, and Tobago. Hemiscorpius lepturus (from the Hemiscorpiidae family) is the most medically important scorpion in Iran which accounts for 92% of all hospitalized scorpion sting cases in Khuzestan province. The venom from H. lepturus is primarily a cytotoxic agent and has hemolytic dermonecrotic, nephrotoxic, and to some extent, hepatotoxic activities.H. lepturus venom collected from Khuzestan province. RP-HPLC was performed to differentiation of different proteins in crude venom. Collected and freeze dried 30kDa fractions were traced regarding to hemolytic activity. The number of 103 fractions were collected from C18 column. The number of 9 major peaks were detected. Amongst them five 30-35kDa fractions were identified in SDS-PAGE. Four 30- 35KDa of the fractions had different hemolytic activity.