RESUMEN
Crotamine and crotamine-like peptides are non-enzymatic polypeptides, belonging to the family of myotoxins, which are found in high concentration in the venom of the Crotalus genus. Helleramine was isolated and purified from the venom of the Southern Pacific rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus helleri. This peptide had a similar, but unique, identity to crotamine and crotamine-like proteins isolated from other rattlesnakes species. The variability of crotamine-like protein amino acid sequences may allow different toxic effects on biological targets or optimize the action against the same target of different prey. Helleramine was capable of increasing intracellular Ca2+ in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell line. It inhibited cell migration as well as cell viability (IC50 = 11.44 µM) of C2C12, immortalized skeletal myoblasts, in a concentration dependent manner, and promoted early apoptosis and cell death under our experimental conditions. Skeletal muscle harvested from mice 24 h after helleramine injection showed contracted myofibrils and profound vacuolization that enlarged the subsarcolemmal space, along with loss of plasmatic and basal membrane integrity. The effects of helleramine provide further insights and evidence of myotoxic activities of crotamine-like peptides and their possible role in crotalid envenomings.