scholarly journals Subtractive Genomics Approach for Identification of Novel Therapeutic Drug Targets in Mycoplasma genitalium

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 921
Author(s):  
Abiodun Joseph Fatoba ◽  
Moses Okpeku ◽  
Matthew Adekunle Adeleke

Mycoplasma genitalium infection is a sexually transmitted infection that causes urethritis, cervicitis, and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in men and women. The global rise in antimicrobial resistance against recommended antibiotics for the treatment of M. genitalium infection has triggered the need to explore novel drug targets against this pathogen. The application of a bioinformatics approach through subtractive genomics has proven highly instrumental in predicting novel therapeutic targets against a pathogen. This study aimed to identify essential and non-homologous proteins with unique metabolic pathways in the pathogen that could serve as novel drug targets. Based on this, a manual comparison of the metabolic pathways of M. genitalium and the human host was done, generating nine pathogen-specific metabolic pathways. Additionally, the analysis of the whole proteome of M. genitalium using different bioinformatics databases generated 21 essential, non-homologous, and cytoplasmic proteins involved in nine pathogen-specific metabolic pathways. The further screening of these 21 cytoplasmic proteins in the DrugBank database generated 13 druggable proteins, which showed similarity with FDA-approved and experimental small-molecule drugs. A total of seven proteins that are involved in seven different pathogen-specific metabolic pathways were finally selected as novel putative drug targets after further analysis. Therefore, these proposed drug targets could aid in the design of potent drugs that may inhibit the functionality of these pathogen-specific metabolic pathways and, as such, lead to the eradication of this pathogen.

Author(s):  
Meenu Goyal ◽  
Citu Citu ◽  
Nidhi Singh

 Objective: Multiple drug resistance (MDR) in bacteria, particularly Gram-negative bacilli, has significantly hindered the treatment of infections caused by these bacteria. This results in the need for identifying new drugs and drug targets for these bacteria. The objective of this study was to identify novel drug targets in Acinetobacter baumannii which has emerged as a medically important pathogen due to an increasing number of infections caused by it and its MDR property.Methods: In our study, we implemented in silico subtractive genomics approach to identify novel drug targets in A. baumannii American type culture collection 17978. Various databases and online software were used to build a systematic workflow involving comparative genomics, metabolic pathways analysis, and drug target prioritization to identify pathogen-specific novel drug targets.Results: First, 458 essential proteins were retrieved from a database of essential genes, and by performing BLASTp against Homo sapiens, 246 human non-homologous essential proteins were selected of 458 proteins. Metabolic pathway analysis performed by Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes–Kyoto Automatic Annotation Server revealed that these 246 essential non-homologous proteins were involved in 66 metabolic pathways. Among these metabolic pathways, 12 pathways were found to be unique to Acinetobacter that involved 37 non-homologous essential proteins. Of these essential non-homologous proteins, 19 proteins were found in common as well as unique metabolic pathways and only 18 proteins were unique to Acinetobacter. Finally, these target proteins were filtered to 9 potential targets, based on subcellular localization and assessment of druggability using Drug bank, ChEMBL, and literature.Conclusion: Our study identified nine potential drug targets which are novel targets in A. baumannii and can be used for designing drugs against these proteins. These drugs will be pathogen specific with no side effects on human host, as the potential drug targets are human non-homologous.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Abid Ali ◽  
Shabir Ahmad ◽  
Abdul Wadood ◽  
Ashfaq U. Rehman ◽  
Hafsa Zahid ◽  
...  

Ticks and tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) continuously causing substantial losses to the public and veterinary health sectors. The identification of putative drug targets and vaccine candidates is crucial to control TBPs. No information has been recorded on designing novel drug targets and vaccine candidates based on proteins. Subtractive proteomics is an in silico approach that utilizes extensive screening for the identification of novel drug targets or vaccine candidates based on the determination of potential target proteins available in a pathogen proteome that may be used effectively to control diseases caused by these infectious agents. The present study aimed to investigate novel drug targets and vaccine candidates by utilizing subtractive proteomics to scan the available proteomes of TBPs and predict essential and non-host homologous proteins required for the survival of these diseases causing agents. Subtractive proteome analysis revealed a list of fifteen essential, non-host homologous, and unique metabolic proteins in the complete proteome of selected pathogens. Among these therapeutic target proteins, three were excluded due to the presence in host gut metagenome, eleven were found to be highly potential drug targets, while only one was found as a potential vaccine candidate against TBPs. The present study may provide a foundation to design potential drug targets and vaccine candidates for the effective control of infections caused by TBPs.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Han ◽  
Lesley J. Collins

Giardia lamblia is an “important” pathogen of humans, but as a diplomonad excavate it is evolutionarily distant from other eukaryotes and relatively little is known about its core metabolic pathways. KEGG, the widely referenced site for providing information of metabolism, does not yet include many enzymes from Giardia species. Here we identify Giardia’s core sugar metabolism using standard bioinformatic approaches. By comparing Giardia proteomes with known enzymes from other species, we have identified enzymes in the glycolysis pathway, as well as some enzymes involved in the TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation. However, the majority of enzymes from the latter two pathways were not identifiable, indicating the likely absence of these functionalities. We have also found enzymes from the Giardia glycolysis pathway that appear more similar to those from bacteria. Because these enzymes are different from those found in mammals, the host organisms for Giardia, we raise the possibility that these bacteria-like enzymes could be novel drug targets for treating Giardia infections.


Author(s):  
Reaz Uddin ◽  
Alina Arif

Background: Clostridioides difficile (CD) is a multi-drug resistant, enteric pathogenic bacterium. The CD associated infections are the leading cause of nosocomial diarrhea that can further lead to pseudomembranous colitis up to a toxic mega-colon or sepsis with greater mortality and morbidity risks. The CD infection possess higher rates of recurrence due to its greater resistance against antibiotics. Considering its higher rates of recurrence, it has become a major burden on the healthcare facilities. Therefore, there is a dire need to identify novel drug targets to combat with the antibiotic resistance of Clostridioides difficile. Objective: To identify and propose new and novel drug targets against the Clostridioides difficile. Methods: In the current study, a computational subtractive genomics approach was applied to obtain a set of potential drug targets that exists in the multi-drug resistant strain of Clostridioides difficile. Here, the uncharacterized proteins were studied as potential drug targets. The methodology involved several bioinformatics databases and tools. The druggable proteins sequences were retrieved based on non-homology with host proteome and essentiality for the survival of the pathogen. The uncharacterized proteins were functionally characterized using different computational tools and sub-cellular localization was also predicted. The metabolic pathways were analyzed using KEGG database. Eventually, the druggable proteome has been fetched using sequence similarity with the already available drug targets present in DrugBank database. These druggable proteins were further explored for the structural details to identify drug candidates. Results : A priority list of potential drug targets was provided with the help of the applied method on complete proteome set of the C. difficile. Moreover, the drug like compounds have been screened against the potential drug targets to prioritize potential drug candidates. To facilitate the need for drug targets and therapies, the study proposed five potential protein drug targets out of which three proposed drug targets were subjected to homology modeling to explore their structural and functional activities. Conclusion: In conclusion, we proposed three unique, unexplored drug targets against C. difficile. The structure-based methods were applied and resulted in a list of top scoring compounds as potential inhibitors to proposed drug targets.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Tahsin Khan ◽  
Araf Mahmud ◽  
Md. Asif Iqbal ◽  
Mahmudul Hasan

AbstractBartonella bacilliformis is the causative agent of Carrión’s disease, one of the truly neglected tropical diseases found in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. Recent evidence predicts that Bartonella bacilliformis subsp. ver097 can emerge as an antibacterial resistant strain and hence identification of novel drug targets is a crying need. Subtractive genome analysis of B. bacilliformis subsp. ver097 was successfully done in order to address the challenges. Various computational tools and online based servers were used to screen out human homologous proteins of pathogen and proteins involved in common metabolic pathways of host and pathogen. Only 7 proteins involved in pathogen specific pathways were further analyzed to identify membrane proteins. ‘Flagellar biosynthesis protein FlhA’ and ‘ABC transporter permease’ were found to be novel as targets according to DrugBank database. To avoid side effects in human while administering drugs, human ‘anti-targets’ analysis was performed to confirm non-homology of selected novel drug targets. Both predicted proteins also showed probability of antigenicity prediction through VaxiJen, however, ‘Flagellar biosynthesis protein FlhA’ showed broad spectrum conservancy with Bartonella strains. Therefore, Flagellar biosynthesis protein FlhAcould facilitate the development of novel drugs and therapeutic compounds along with vaccines for efficient treatment of infections caused by Bartonella bacilliformis subsp. ver097.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Tahsin Khan ◽  
Araf Mahmud ◽  
Mahmudul Hasan ◽  
Kazi Faizul Azim ◽  
Musammat Kulsuma Begum ◽  
...  

AbstractLegionella pneumophila, the causative agent of a serious type of pneumonia (lung infection) called Legionnaires’ disease. It is emerging as an antibacterial resistant strain day by day. Hence, the identification of novel drug targets and vaccine candidates is essential to fight against this pathogen. Herein attempts were taken through subtractive genomics approach on complete proteome of L. pneumophila to address the challenges of multidrug resistance. A total 2930 proteins from L. pneumophila proteome were investigated through diverse subtractive proteomics approaches, e.g., identification of human non-homologous and pathogen-specific essential proteins, druggability and ‘anti-target’ analysis, prediction of subcellular localization, human microbiome non-homology screening, protein-protein interactions studies in order to find out effective drug and vaccine targets. Only 3 were identified that fulfilled all these criteria and proposed as novel drug targets against L. pneumophila. Furthermore, outer membrane protein TolB was identified as potential vaccine target with better antigenicity score and allowed for further in silico analysis to design a unique multiepitope subunit vaccine against it. Antigenicity and transmembrane topology screening, allergenicity and toxicity assessment, population coverage analysis, and molecular docking approach were adopted to generate the most potent epitopes. The final vaccine was constructed by the combination of highly immunogenic epitopes along with suitable adjuvant and linkers. The designed vaccine construct showed higher binding interaction with different MHC molecules and human immune TLR2 receptors with minimum deformability at molecular level. The translational potency and microbial expression of the vaccine protein was also analyzed using pET28a(+) vector. The present study aids in the development of novel therapeutics and vaccine candidates for efficient treatment of the infections caused by Legionella pneumophila. However, further wet lab-based investigations and in vivo trials are highly recommended to experimentally validate our prediction.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Abid Ali ◽  
Shabir Ahmad ◽  
Pedro Machado Medeiros de Albuquerque ◽  
Atif Kamil ◽  
Fahdah Ayed Alshammari ◽  
...  

The emergence of drug-resistant lice, acari, and their associated pathogens (APs) is associated with economic losses; thus, it is essential to find new appropriate therapeutic approaches. In the present study, a subtractive proteomics approach was used to predict suitable therapeutics against these vectors and their infectious agents. We found 9701 proteins in the lice (Pediculus humanus var. corporis) and acari (Ixodes scapularis, Leptotrombidium deliense), and 4822 proteins in the proteomes of their APs (Babesia microti, Borreliella mayonii, Borrelia miyamotoi, Borrelia recurrentis, Rickettsia prowazekii, Orientia tsutsugamushi str. Boryong) that were non-homologous to host proteins. Among these non-homologous proteins, 365 proteins of lice and acari, and 630 proteins of APs, were predicted as essential proteins. Twelve unique essential proteins were predicted to be involved in four unique metabolic pathways of lice and acari, and 103 unique proteins were found to be involved in 75 unique metabolic pathways of APs. The sub cellular localization analysis of 115 unique essential proteins of lice and acari and their APs revealed that 61 proteins were cytoplasmic, 42 as membrane-bound proteins and 12 proteins with multiple localization. The druggability analysis of the identified 73 cytoplasmic and multiple localization essential proteins revealed 22 druggable targets and 51 novel drug targets that participate in unique pathways of lice and acari and their APs. Further, the predicted 42 membrane bound proteins could be potential vaccine candidates. Screening of useful inhibitors against these novel targets may result in finding novel compounds efficient for the control of these parasites.


2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. van Duin ◽  
H. Woolson ◽  
D. Mallinson ◽  
D. Black

Genomics-based discovery of novel therapeutic drug targets requires the design of well-controlled biological or pharmacological experiments with experimental questions and hypotheses that relate to the therapeutic area of interest. This will aid the validation level of differentially expressed genes and hence facilitate the de-selection of the genes that are identified in microarray experiments. We here provide an example of how this approach is followed in the manipulation of human macrophage foam cells towards the discovery of novel drug targets for treatment of atherosclerosis.


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