Snakebite envenoming is a neglected public pathology, affecting especially rural communities or isolated areas of tropical and subtropical Latin American countries. The parenteral administration of antivenom is the mainstay and the only validated treatment of snake bite envenoming. Here, we assess the efficacy of polyspecific anti-Bothrops serum (α-BS) produced in the Instituto Nacional de Salud (INS, Peru) and at the Fundação Ezequiel Dias (FUNED, Brazil), to neutralize the main toxic activities induced by five medically-relevant venoms of: Bothrops atrox, B. barnetti, and B. pictus from Peru, and the Brazilian B. jararaca and B. leucurus, all of them inhabiting different geographical locations.

We thank Prof. J.A. Eble, from the Institute for Physiological Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry, University of Münster, Germany for critical reading the manuscript. This work was supported by Convenio de Cooperación Bilateral CONCYTEC (Perú) - CNPq (Brazil), Grant 490269/2013-3 , Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG, Brazil) and Programa Nacional de Innovación para la Competitividad y Productividad - Innóvate Perú (Contrato N° 131-FINCyT-IB-2013 ). This report is part of a dissertation for Doctoral Degree of Fanny Lazo to Post Graduate School in Biological Sciences, UNMSM.

Snakebite envenoming is a global neglected disease with an incidence of up to 2.7 million new cases every year. Although antivenoms are so-far the most effective treatment to reverse the acute systemic effects induced by snakebite envenoming, they have a limited therapeutic potential, being unable to completely neutralize the local venom effects. Local damage, such as dermonecrosis and myonecrosis, can lead to permanent sequelae with physical, social, and psychological implications. The strong inflammatory process induced by snake venoms is associated with poor tissue regeneration, in particular the lack of or reduced skeletal muscle regeneration. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs)-based therapies have shown both anti-inflammatory and pro-regenerative properties. We postulate that using allogeneic MSCs or their cell-free products can induce skeletal muscle regeneration in snakebite victims...