In recent years, many antimicrobial peptides have been found in the venoms of animals from different sources and have been intensively studied to elucidate their ability to inhibit the growth of potential pathogenic microorganisms. The aim of this study was to characterize and evaluate the in vitro antifungal activity of crude venom from two amazonian snakes: Bothrops atrox and Crotalus durissus ruruima. The molecular profile of representative proteins from the venom samples was obtained by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Fungal inhibition was investigated by microdilution assays against two Candida albicans strains. Based on the chromatography and electrophoresis analyses, the venom from B. atrox and C. durissus ruruima were characterized. In addition, the venoms (400 µg/mL) were not able to cause significant inhibition (> 50%) of the growth of C. albicans KL-07, at only 9.09% (200 µg/mL) and 7.88% (400 µg/mL), respectively, and neither presented any influence on the growth of strain C. albicans ATCC 36232.

 

Key words: Antifungal, activity, snake and Amazon.