Increasing dilutions of the S. plumieri crude venom samples (20, 200 and 2000 μg/mL) and purified toxin samples (0.5, 2 and 10 μg/mL) were prepared in PBS and assayed in duplicate. After incubation for 20 h at 37 °C in a humid chamber the PLA2 activity was detected by visualization of halos of substrate hydrolysis. PBS was used as negative control and 50 μg/mL of Crotalus durissus terrificus venom was run as reference. The homogeneity of the

active fraction obtained in the last purification step was examined by denaturing PAGE (SDS-PAGE) according to Laemmli (1970). SDS-PAGE was carried out under reducing (4% beta-mercaptoethanol) and non-reducing conditions in 8% gels. Protein bands were detected by Coomassie blue G staining. The apparent molecular mass of the purified protein was calculated using a mixture of protein molecular markers (myosin – 200 kDa, β-galactosidase – 116 kDa, Ribociclib datasheet phosphorylase b – 97 kDa, bovine serum albumin – 66 kDa, and ovalbumin – 45 kDa). In addition, Sp-CTx TSA HDAC mouse samples were also analyzed by SDS-PAGE on 8% gels after chemical cross-linking

with bis-(sulfosuccinimidyl) suberate (BS3) (Pierce). For this purpose, Sp-CTx (50 μg/mL in PBS) was incubated with increasing concentrations of BS3 (0, 1, 2, 5 and 10 mM) for 1 h at 26 °C. Two-dimensional (2D) electrophoresis was also performed. Sp-CTx (15 μg of protein) was applied to 7 cm immobilized linear pH gradients (pH 4–7) strips (IPG, Bio-Rad), with Deastreak rehydration solution (Amersham, Uppsala, Sweden) for 12 h, 50 V at 20 °C. Isoelectric focusing (IEF) was performed in an IEF Cell system (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA). Electrical conditions were set as described by the supplier. After the first-dimension run, the IPG gel strip was incubated at room temperature for 15 min in equilibration buffer (50 mM Tris–HCl pH 8.8, 6 M urea, 2% SDS, 30% glycerol and traces of bromophenol blue) containing 125 mM DTT, followed by a second Acesulfame Potassium incubation step (15 min at room temperature) in equilibration buffer containing 125 mM iodoacetamide instead of DTT. The second dimension electrophoresis was performed in a vertical system with uniform 10% separating

gel (mini PROTEAN 3 cell; Bio-Rad) at 25 °C, according to the method described by Laemmli (1970). Protein spots in the gel were stained with colloidal Coomassie blue brilliant CBB G-250 following procedures described elsewhere (Neuhoff et al., 1988). For amino acid sequence determination, samples of about 250 pmol of the native purified protein were subjected to Edman degradation using a Shimadzu PPSQ-21 automated protein sequencer. The Sp-CTx protein bands were manually removed from the gel (SDS-PAGE under non-reduction conditions, according to item 2.5). Each excised gel band was destained with 400 μL of 50% acetonitrile/25 mM ammonium bicarbonate buffer, pH 8.0 for 15 min. The supernatant was removed and this procedure was repeated twice.