Snake bites can be fatal if not treated quickly. Echis carinatus (Saw-scale viper) is one of the most venomous snakes in Asia and some parts of the Africa with deadly hemotoxic venom. Since it has been reported that suramin, an anti-trypansomiasis drug, can inhibits the toxic effects of some snake venoms, and Vitamin K can affect the blood coagulation, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of suramin and Vitamin K on envenoming by the Iranian snake Echis carinatus. Twenty eight albino mice weighing 35±5g were divided into four equal groups (A, B, C, and D) of seven mice. Group A, as a control received the venom at 10 mg/kg, group B was treated with 10 mg/kg of suramin 15 min after injection of venom, group C, was treated with 5 mg/kg of Vitamin K3 15 min after injection of venom and finally group D was treated with a combination of suramin and vitamin K3 with mentioned doses. It should note that venom and suramin have been administrated by Intraperitoneal (IP) injection and vitamin K3 by Subcutaneous (SC) injection. The results show that all mice in group A succumbed after 40±4 min while time to death in group B (P<0.05) that was treated with 10 mg/kg of suramin increased to 61±6 min. In contrast, time to death decreased to 32±4 min in group C that was treated with 5 mg/kg of Vitamin K3. In the final experiment suramin at10 mg/kg is simultaneously injected with vitamin K3, after injection of venom into animals. In the final experiment, with group D, the survival time of this group were significantly increased to 80±8 min when compared to control group. The results of this study showed that combination of suramin and vitamin K3 has more antagonistic effect on venom than a single dose of suramin or vitamin K3 and have a protective role against Echis carinatus venom at least in delaying time to death of envenomed animals. The experiments still continue.

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