Antinociceptive, antiinflammatory, and antipyretic effects induced by the venom of Egyptian scorpion Androctonus amoreuxi

Abstract

Scorpion venom is a very complicated mixture of various peptides/proteins which could induce toxicological and pharmacological responses. This investigation was conducted to evaluate the possible pharmacological properties (analgesic, antipyretic, and antiinflammatory effects) of the Egyptian scorpion venom Androctonus amoreuxi in mice and rats injected intraperitoneally with 1/10 and 1/5 LD50 (0.11 and 0.22 mg/kg for mice; 0.385 and 0.77 mg/kg for rats, respectively). The peripheral and central analgesic effect of A. amoreuxi venom was determined using the tests of mice-abdominal writhing and tail immersion of rats, respectively. The antipyretic and antiinflammatory activities were examined using the pyrexia rats model induced by Brewer’s yeast and the paw mice edema induced by carrageenan, respectively. The venom of A. amoreuxi produced significant (p < 0.05) peripheral and central analgesic activity in both animal models. Also, treatment with the scorpion venom showed significant (p < 0.05) dose-independent reduction in pyrexia of rats. More importantly, the venom significantly inhibited mice paw edema induced by carrageenan. Accordingly, the present results showed that the venom of this scorpion possesses remarkable pharmacological properties (analgesic, antipyretic, and antiinflammatory activities) on animal models, and might be contain certain peptides responsible for the reported activities.