Production of anti-horse antibodies induced by IgG, F(ab')2 and Fab applied repeatedly to rabbits. Effect on antivenom pharmacokinetics.

We separated whole IgG, Fab and F(ab')2 fragments from horse plasma. We previously studied the pharmacokinetics of these immunoglobulins and fragments in rabbits and shown that Fab and F(ab')2 pharmacokinetics were well described by a three-exponential kinetics, while IgG and IgG(T) pharmacokinetics, however, deviated from the three-exponential kinetics 120 h after injecting a bolus of the immunotherapeutics; this departure was shown to be due to a surge of anti-horse antibodies occurring after 120 h, peaking at ≈260 h and decaying slowly afterward (Vázquez et al., 2010). We now describe antivenom pharmacokinetics and anti-horse IgG production in rabbits receiving three boluses (300 µg/kg, I.V.) of Fab, F(ab')2 or IgG separated by 21 days.