ANTI-ENZYME IMMUNITY 309 



tive of lecithin is nothing but a lecithin from which oleic acid is split 

 by the hemolytic enzyme of the snake venom. They called this lecithin 

 derivative desoleolecithin. In contrast to lecithin, this substance was 

 found to be insoluble in ether and water, and represented 60 per cent 

 of the lecithin used. The amount of oleic acid split off was calculated to 

 be 30 per cent. They also found that the partially purified venom 

 lecithinase and that present in cobra venom are completely neutralized 

 by Calmette immune serum. 



Manwaring (1910) investigated the lecithin hydrolyzing factor in 

 cobra venom and reported that it was a powerful lipase, and that the 

 hemolytic activity of "mono-fatty acid-lecithin" (desoleolecithin of 

 Von Dungern and Coca) accounts for the total hemolytic action of 

 lecithin-venom mixture. 



Delezenne and Ledebt (1911, 1912) reported that the hemolytic 

 substance produced from lecithin by the lipolytic action of snake 

 venom is soluble in water and alcohol, and insoluble in ether. It re- 

 sists boiling temperature and is not neutralized by antivenom, though 

 antivenom neutralizes the snake venom enzyme which produces the 

 hemolytic substance. The venom does not enter into chemical union 

 with lecithin during the formation of the hemolytic substance. They 

 observed that the hemolytic power of the venom-serum, using horse 

 serum as source of lecithin, declines and is completely abolished after 

 reaching a peak. This was explained as due to the advanced action of 

 lecithinase on lecithin beyond the hemolytic stage. When they added 

 a titrated amount of antivenom to the venom-lecithinase mixture at a 

 time when the hemolytic power is at a peak, they could prevent the 

 activity of lecithinase and thus prevent the further hydrolysis of hemo- 

 lytic desoleolecithin. Contardi and Ercoli (1933) reported that snake 

 venom contains two lecithinases, A and B. Lecithinase A splits one of 

 the two fatty acids from lecithin producing the hemolytic lysolecithin.* 

 This enzyme is incapable of hydrolyzing lysolecithin further. Leci- 

 thinase B, on the other hand, is capable of splitting both of the fatty 

 acids from lecithin, or the remaining fatty acid from hemolytic lyso- 

 lecithin, abolishing its hemolytic property and yielding choline-glycerin- 

 phosphoric ester. The activity of lecithinase B evidently accounts for 



*Gortner and Hermans (1943) reported that the number of erythrocytes of man, 

 rabbit and sheep hemolyzed by 1 mg. of lysolecithin were, respectively, 5.5X10°, 

 7.7±0.4xl0' and 15±2xlO°. 



