Ultrastructural effects of the venom of the small-scaled snake (Parademansia microlepidotus) on the nerve terminals of the rat diaphragm.

Venom of the small-scaled snake (Parademansia microlepidotus) causes a large increase in the number of coated omega figures inserted in the axolemma of nerve terminals. It also causes both a loss of synaptic vesicles and an increase in the number of neurofilaments in the nerve terminals. The actions of the venom are very similar to taipoxin, a pre-synaptic neurotoxin from the venom of the taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus). The morphological changes in the nerve terminals caused by the small-scaled snake venom are not unusual and do not explain the extreme lethality of the venom.