A drug combination therapy consisting of toxin phospholipase A2 and metalloproteinase inhibitors provides preclinical protection against North American Crotalid snakebite envenoming

Dawson, Charlotte A and Marriott, Amy E. and Crittenden, Edouard and Westhorpe, Adam P and Stars, Emma and Edge, Rebecca J and Hall, Steve and Menzies, Stefanie and Clare, Rachel and Casewell, Nicholas R. (2025) A drug combination therapy consisting of toxin phospholipase A2 and metalloproteinase inhibitors provides preclinical protection against North American Crotalid snakebite envenoming. Biorxiv. ISSN 2692-8205

Text (Dawson, et al (Preprint) - A drug combination therapy consisting of toxin phospholipase A2 and metalloproteinase inhibitors provides preclincal protection against crotalid snakebite - 2025)
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Abstract

Background Across North America an estimated 3,800–6,500 snakebite envenomings occur annually, resulting in 7–15 deaths and an unknown number of disfigurements and disabilities. Most bites are caused by Crotalid snake species. The variable diversity and toxin complexity of crotalid venoms presents a considerable challenge to developing broadly effective small molecule therapeutics to better treat snakebite in this region. Methods We evaluated the ability of three small molecule, toxin inhibiting, repurposed drugs to inhibit the venom activities of six medically important crotalid snake species (Agkistrodon contortrix, Crotalus atrox, C. adamanteus, C. horridus, C. scutulatus and Sistrurus miliarius). These drugs target two pathologically relevant venom toxin families, the snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs; marimastat and DMPS) and phospholipases A2 (PLA2s; varespladib), and venom inhibition was measured using in vitro enzymatic and phenotypic plasma coagulation assays. Thereafter we evaluated the efficacy of individual drugs and dual drug combinations in in vivo preclinical models of snakebite envenoming, using both preincubation and rescue model formats. Results In vitro bioassays demonstrated that the selected small molecules showed potent inhibition of the enzymatic activity of different toxin families to the nanomolar (varespladib vs PLA2 and marimastat vs SVMP) or micromolar (DMPS vs SVMP) level. Three of the venoms had anticoagulant activity, which varespladib restored to normal coagulation profiles, suggesting this activity is mostly driven by PLA2 toxins. Preclinical experiments revealed that pre-incubation of representative venoms with single drugs was insufficient to completely protect against lethality, except for varespladib against C. scutulatus. Superior efficacy was observed when drugs were used in a combination approach, with the combination of marimastat and varespladib providing greatest protection against lethality in both pre-incubation and rescue models. Conclusions Venom variation among snake species makes the development of generic snakebite therapeutics challenging. In this study we showed that while SVMP and PLA2 inhibiting drugs show inhibitory potency against diverse North American snake venoms, drug combinations consisting of an SVMP inhibitor together with a PLA2 inhibitor are required to confer broad in vivo protection against lethality caused by envenoming. This study highlights the potential long-term value of drug combinations as next-generation therapeutics for snakebite envenoming.