Venom
The venom in the eastern brown snake is considered to be
one of the most potent venoms in Australia. It is known
to be the second most venomous snake in the world. It is
responsible for the most deaths per year in Australia
with its powerful neurotoxins. Like most other venomous
snakes the Brown snake has both presynaptic and
postsynaptic neurotoxins. The presynaptic
neurotoxin, taipoxin, is the most potent component of
the snake’s venom.
The highly potent taipoxin and the not so highly potent
textilotoxin are the two major components in most all
presynaptic neurotoxins. The brown snake’s venom is
mostly composed of this taipoxin which is much more fast
acting and deadly than the textilotoxin found in in more
abundance in most other venomous snakes.
The postsynaptic neurotoxins in the brown snake is not as well studied and is shown that humans are not as susceptible to the postsynaptic neurotoxins as they are presynaptic. It is documented that cats and dogs show symptoms of the postsynaptic neurotoxins and presynaptic neurotoxins of the brown snake. This indicates that the postsynaptic neurotoxins are still important to the brown snake’s venom.
The taipoxin's main effect on its victims is it stops evoked spontaneous release of acetylcholine which comes from the motor nerve terminals. Organisms then eventually suffocate due to the respiratory failure from the neuromuscular blockage. Taipoxin is moderately acidic and is a sialo-glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 45,600.