scholarly journals Toxoplasma gondii Tyrosine-Rich Oocyst Wall Protein: A Closer Look through an In Silico Prism

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ali Asghari ◽  
Hamidreza Majidiani ◽  
Taher Nemati ◽  
Mohammad Fatollahzadeh ◽  
Morteza Shams ◽  
...  

Toxoplasmosis is a global threat with significant zoonotic concern. The present in silico study was aimed at determination of bioinformatics features and immunogenic epitopes of a tyrosine-rich oocyst wall protein (TrOWP) of Toxoplasma gondii. After retrieving the amino acid sequence from UniProt database, several parameters were predicted including antigenicity, allergenicity, solubility and physico-chemical features, signal peptide, transmembrane domain, and posttranslational modifications. Following secondary and tertiary structure prediction, the 3D model was refined, and immunogenic epitopes were forecasted. It was a 25.57 kDa hydrophilic molecule with 236 residues, a signal peptide, and significant antigenicity scores. Moreover, several linear and conformational B-cell epitopes were present. Also, potential mouse and human cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) and helper T-lymphocyte (HTL) epitopes were predicted in the sequence. The findings of the present in silico study are promising as they render beneficial characteristics of TrOWP to be included in future vaccination experiments.

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-132
Author(s):  
Marjanu Hikmah Elias ◽  
Noraziah Nordin ◽  
Nazefah Abdul Hamid

Background: Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) is associated with the BCRABL1 gene, which plays a central role in the pathogenesis of CML. Thus, it is crucial to suppress the expression of BCR-ABL1 in the treatment of CML. MicroRNA is known to be a gene expression regulator and is thus a good candidate for molecularly targeted therapy for CML. Objective: This study aims to identify the microRNAs from edible plants targeting the 3’ Untranslated Region (3’UTR) of BCR-ABL1. Methods: In this in silico analysis, the sequence of 3’UTR of BCR-ABL1 was obtained from Ensembl Genome Browser. PsRNATarget Analysis Server and MicroRNA Target Prediction (miRTar) Server were used to identify miRNAs that have binding conformity with 3’UTR of BCR-ABL1. The MiRBase database was used to validate the species of plants expressing the miRNAs. The RNAfold web server and RNA COMPOSER were used for secondary and tertiary structure prediction, respectively. Results: In silico analyses revealed that cpa-miR8154, csi-miR3952, gma-miR4414-5p, mdm-miR482c, osa-miR1858a and osa-miR1858b show binding conformity with strong molecular interaction towards 3’UTR region of BCR-ABL1. However, only cpa-miR- 8154, osa-miR-1858a and osa-miR-1858b showed good target site accessibility. Conclusion: It is predicted that these microRNAs post-transcriptionally inhibit the BCRABL1 gene and thus could be a potential molecular targeted therapy for CML. However, further studies involving in vitro, in vivo and functional analyses need to be carried out to determine the ability of these miRNAs to form the basis for targeted therapy for CML.


2020 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 107158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hüseyin Can ◽  
Sedef Erkunt Alak ◽  
Ahmet Efe Köseoğlu ◽  
Mert Döşkaya ◽  
Cemal Ün

2011 ◽  
Vol 236-238 ◽  
pp. 1078-1082
Author(s):  
Zhen Hong Zhuang ◽  
Feng Zhang ◽  
Yan Yun Li ◽  
Jun Yuan ◽  
Yan Ling Yang ◽  
...  

The gene, prx II, in mice liver was found to be up-regulated under the stress of AFB1 in our previous study. In this study, the total RNA from the mice liver was extracted, and followed by the synthesis of cDNA with the RNA as template by the method of reverse transcription. Then, prx II gene fragment was amplified by PCR with the cDNA as template. After double-digestion and ligation reaction, the prokaryotic expression vector pET28a (+)-prx II was successfully constructed and was transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). The protein- Prx II was successfully expressed when induced byIPTG, and finally, Prx II was purified by Ni2+-NTA affinity chromatography. The molecule structure of Prx II, including its signal peptide, hydrophobicity, and its secondary and tertiary structure, was predicted by bioinformatics analysis. The results showed that no signal peptide was predicted in the molecule of Prx II; Five hydrohpobic domains were predicted in the protein molecule, and the average predictive value for its hydrophobicity was -0.151; There were 35% α-helix (69 residues) and 21% β-pleated sheet (42 residues) in the molecule; The tertiary structure of the protein was constituted by seven α-helices and seven β-pleated sheets.


Author(s):  
Anila Hoda ◽  
Myqerem Tafaj ◽  
Enkelejda Sallaku

Abstract Background Cellulose is the primary component of the plant cell wall and an important source of energy for the ruminant and microbial protein synthesis in the rumen. Cell wall content is digested by anaerobic fermentation activity mainly of bacteria belonging to species Fibrobacter succinogenes, Ruminicoccus albus, Ruminococcus flavefaciens, and Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens. Bacteria belonging to the species Ruminococcus albus contain cellulosomes that enable it to adhere to and digest cellulose, and its genome encodes cellulases and hemicellulases. This study aimed to perform an in silico comparative characterization and functional analysis of cellulase from Ruminococcus albus to explore physicochemical properties and to estimate primary, secondary, and tertiary structure using various bio-computational tools. The protein sequences of cellulases belonging to 6 different Ruminococcus albus strains were retrieved using UniProt. In in silico composition of amino acids, basic physicochemical characteristics were analyzed using ProtParam and Protscale. Multiple sequence alignment of retrieved sequences was performed using Clustal Omega and the phylogenetic tree was constructed using Mega X software. Bioinformatics tools are used to better understand and determine the 3D structure of cellulase. The predicted model was refined by ModRefiner. Structure alignment between the best-predicted model and the template is applied to evaluate the similarity between structures. Results In this study are demonstrated several physicochemical characteristics of the cellulase enzyme. The instability index values indicate that the proteins are highly stable. Proteins are dominated by random coils and alpha helixes. The aliphatic index was higher than 71 providing information that the proteins are highly thermostable. No transmembrane domain was found in the protein, and the enzyme is extracellular and moderately acidic. The best tertiary structure model of the enzyme was obtained by the use of Raptor X, which was refined by ModRefiner. Raptor X suggested the 6Q1I_A as one of the best homologous templates for the predicted 3D protein structure. Ramachandran plot analysis showed that 90.1% of amino acid residues are within the most favored regions. Conclusions This study provides for the first time insights about the physicochemical properties, structure, and function of cellulase, from Ruminococcus albus, that will help for detection and identification of such enzyme in vivo or in silico.


2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (01) ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
FengPing Guo

Pulmonary vascular remodeling (PVR) is the main characteristic lesion of ascites syndrome (AS) in broilers. JAZF1 plays an important role in PVR, but there is no study on its protein function and structure. In this study, the physical and chemical properties, hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity and transmembrane domain, phosphorylation site and glycosylation site, subcellular localization and signal peptide, secondary and tertiary structure, antigen peptide and conserved domain and phylogenetic relationship of JAZF1 protein were predicted online by bioinformatics tools. The results showed that the number of amino acids of JAZF1 was 243aa, the theoretical isoelectric point was 8.63, the instability index was 58.1, and the average coefficient of hydrophilicity was -0.674. It was found to be a hydrophilic protein having 35 phosphorylation sites and a N-glycosylation site with no transmembrane domain. The protein is expressed in the nucleus, there is no signal peptide distribution in the whole sequence and the secondary structure is mainly composed of random coil and α- helix. There were 7 B cell epitopes, 7 conserved domains and compared with other birds, JAZF1 is 95.61% similar. In summary, from the analysis we came to conclude that the amino acid sequence 64-80aa, 91-108aa, 136-151aa and 179-187aa can be selected as antigen sites and among which 136-151aa may be the best. This study lays a good foundation for follow-up experiments, which then provides powerful conditions for pathological detection of pulmonary vascular remodeling and gene drug therapy of ascites syndrome in broilers.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumar Manochitra ◽  
Subhash Chandra Parija

Background: Amoebiasis is the third most common parasitic cause of morbidity and mortality particularly in countries with poor hygienic settings. There exists an ambiguity in the diagnosis of amoebiasis, and hence arises a necessity for a better diagnostic approach. Serine-rich Entamoeba histolytica protein (SREHP), peroxiredoxin and Gal/GalNAc lectin are pivotal in E. histolytica virulence and are extensively studied as diagnostic and vaccine targets. For elucidating the cellular function of these proteins, details regarding their respective quaternary structures are essential which are not available till date. Hence, this study was carried out to predict the structure of these target proteins and characterize them structurally as well as functionally using relevant in-silico methods. Methods:The amino acid sequences of the proteins were retrieved from National Centre for Biotechnology Information database and aligned using ClustalW. Bioinformatic tools were employed in the secondary structure and tertiary structure prediction. The predicted structure was validated, and final refinement was carried out. Results: The protein structures predicted by i-TASSER were found to be more accurate than Phyre2 based on the validation using SAVES server. The prediction suggests SREHP to be a extracellular protein, peroxiredoxin was a peripheral membrane protein, while Gal/GalAc was found to be a cell-wall protein. Signal peptides were found in the amino-acid sequences of SREHP and Gal/GalNAc, whereas they were not present in the peroxiredoxin sequence. Gal/GalNAc lectin showed better antigenicity than the other two proteins studied. All three proteins exhibited similarity in their structures and were mostly composed of loops. Discussion:The structures of SREHP and peroxiredoxin were predicted successfully, while the structure of Gal/GalNAc lectin could not be predicted as it was a complex protein composed of three sub-units. Also, this protein showed less similarity with the available structural homologs. The quaternary structures predicted from this study would provide better structural and functional insights into these proteins and may aid in development of newer diagnostic assays or enhancement of the available treatment modalities.


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