Antibodies
Antibodies play important roles in different and complex molecularly interacting networks. These interacting networks involve toxin molecular domains, cellular receptors and intracellular activated pathways, eventually resulting in the release of mediators and cell damage. Their hypervariable molecular domains precisely recognize specific toxin domains. As therapeutic tools, antibodies are used to neutralize toxin effects and serum therapy remains the most common and effective treatment against envenoming by venomous animals. Antivenoms are still prepared by fragmentation of polyclonal antibodies isolated from the sera of hyperimmunized horses. However, their use can cause adverse side effects. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to develop novel approaches for generation of more specific antibodies, yielding efficaciously enhanced antivenoms devoid of adverse side effects.