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Hassan SS, Jamal SB, Radusky LG, Tiwari S, Ullah A, Ali J, Behramand, de Carvalho PVSD, Shams R, Khan S, Figueiredo HCP, Barh D, Ghosh P, Silva A, Baumbach J, Röttger R, Turjanski AG, Azevedo VAC. The Druggable Pocketome of Corynebacterium diphtheriae: A New Approach for in silico Putative Druggable Targets. Front Genet 2018; 9:44. [PMID: 29487617 PMCID: PMC5816920 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2018.00044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2017] [Accepted: 01/30/2018] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Diphtheria is an acute and highly infectious disease, previously regarded as endemic in nature but vaccine-preventable, is caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae (Cd). In this work, we used an in silico approach along the 13 complete genome sequences of C. diphtheriae followed by a computational assessment of structural information of the binding sites to characterize the “pocketome druggability.” To this end, we first computed the “modelome” (3D structures of a complete genome) of a randomly selected reference strain Cd NCTC13129; that had 13,763 open reading frames (ORFs) and resulted in 1,253 (∼9%) structure models. The amino acid sequences of these modeled structures were compared with the remaining 12 genomes and consequently, 438 conserved protein sequences were obtained. The RCSB-PDB database was consulted to check the template structures for these conserved proteins and as a result, 401 adequate 3D models were obtained. We subsequently predicted the protein pockets for the obtained set of models and kept only the conserved pockets that had highly druggable (HD) values (137 across all strains). Later, an off-target host homology analyses was performed considering the human proteome using NCBI database. Furthermore, the gene essentiality analysis was carried out that gave a final set of 10-conserved targets possessing highly druggable protein pockets. To check the target identification robustness of the pipeline used in this work, we crosschecked the final target list with another in-house target identification approach for C. diphtheriae thereby obtaining three common targets, these were; hisE-phosphoribosyl-ATP pyrophosphatase, glpX-fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase II, and rpsH-30S ribosomal protein S8. Our predicted results suggest that the in silico approach used could potentially aid in experimental polypharmacological target determination in C. diphtheriae and other pathogens, thereby, might complement the existing and new drug-discovery pipelines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Syed S Hassan
- Department of Chemistry, Islamia College University Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
| | - Syed B Jamal
- PG Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Leandro G Radusky
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Sandeep Tiwari
- PG Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Asad Ullah
- Department of Chemistry, Islamia College University Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
| | - Javed Ali
- Department of Chemistry, Kohat University of Science and Technology, Kohat, Pakistan
| | - Behramand
- Department of Chemistry, Islamia College University Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
| | - Paulo V S D de Carvalho
- PG Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Rida Shams
- Department of Chemistry, Islamia College University Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
| | - Sabir Khan
- Department of Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, São Paulo State University, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Henrique C P Figueiredo
- AQUACEN, National Reference Laboratory for Aquatic Animal Diseases, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
| | - Debmalya Barh
- PG Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.,Centre for Genomics and Applied Gene Technology, Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology, Purba Medinipur, India
| | - Preetam Ghosh
- Department of Computer Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States
| | - Artur Silva
- Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil
| | - Jan Baumbach
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Richard Röttger
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Adrián G Turjanski
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,INQUIMAE/UBA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Vasco A C Azevedo
- PG Program in Bioinformatics, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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Jamal SB, Hassan SS, Tiwari S, Viana MV, Benevides LDJ, Ullah A, Turjanski AG, Barh D, Ghosh P, Costa DA, Silva A, Röttger R, Baumbach J, Azevedo VAC. An integrative in-silico approach for therapeutic target identification in the human pathogen Corynebacterium diphtheriae. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0186401. [PMID: 29049350 PMCID: PMC5648181 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2016] [Accepted: 09/29/2017] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Corynebacterium diphtheriae (Cd) is a Gram-positive human pathogen responsible for diphtheria infection and once regarded for high mortalities worldwide. The fatality gradually decreased with improved living standards and further alleviated when many immunization programs were introduced. However, numerous drug-resistant strains emerged recently that consequently decreased the efficacy of current therapeutics and vaccines, thereby obliging the scientific community to start investigating new therapeutic targets in pathogenic microorganisms. In this study, our contributions include the prediction of modelome of 13 C. diphtheriae strains, using the MHOLline workflow. A set of 463 conserved proteins were identified by combining the results of pangenomics based core-genome and core-modelome analyses. Further, using subtractive proteomics and modelomics approaches for target identification, a set of 23 proteins was selected as essential for the bacteria. Considering human as a host, eight of these proteins (glpX, nusB, rpsH, hisE, smpB, bioB, DIP1084, and DIP0983) were considered as essential and non-host homologs, and have been subjected to virtual screening using four different compound libraries (extracted from the ZINC database, plant-derived natural compounds and Di-terpenoid Iso-steviol derivatives). The proposed ligand molecules showed favorable interactions, lowered energy values and high complementarity with the predicted targets. Our proposed approach expedites the selection of C. diphtheriae putative proteins for broad-spectrum development of novel drugs and vaccines, owing to the fact that some of these targets have already been identified and validated in other organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Syed Babar Jamal
- PG program in Bioinformatics (LGCM), Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Syed Shah Hassan
- PG program in Bioinformatics (LGCM), Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
- Department of Chemistry, Islamia College University Peshawar, KPK, Pakistan
| | - Sandeep Tiwari
- PG program in Bioinformatics (LGCM), Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Marcus V. Viana
- PG program in Bioinformatics (LGCM), Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Leandro de Jesus Benevides
- PG program in Bioinformatics (LGCM), Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Asad Ullah
- Department of Chemistry, Islamia College University Peshawar, KPK, Pakistan
| | - Adrián G. Turjanski
- Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Debmalya Barh
- Centre for Genomics and Applied Gene Technology, Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology, Nonakuri, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India
| | - Preetam Ghosh
- Department of Computer Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States of America
| | - Daniela Arruda Costa
- PG program in Bioinformatics (LGCM), Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
| | - Artur Silva
- Institute of Biologic Sciences, Federal University of Para, Belém, PA, Brazil
| | - Richard Röttger
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Jan Baumbach
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
| | - Vasco A. C. Azevedo
- PG program in Bioinformatics (LGCM), Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
- Department of General Biology (LGCM), Institute of Biologic Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
- * E-mail:
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Swain R, Behera C, Arava SK, Kundu N. Sudden death of a child due to respiratory diphtheria. Med Leg J 2016; 84:90-3. [PMID: 26768902 DOI: 10.1177/0025817215626542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
A four-year-old girl presented to the emergency department with respiratory distress. Death occurred despite attempted resuscitation. The illness was not clinically diagnosed. Her father revealed that she had a fever and sore throat for the last four days and was not immunised for diphtheria. Characteristic gross and microscopic pathology of respiratory diphtheria and microbiological findings were observed. The cause of death was acute respiratory failure consequent upon upper airway obstruction from diphtheria. Forensic pathologists should remember that the diphtheria cases can cause sudden death especially in developing countries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajanikanta Swain
- Department of Forensic Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
| | - Chittaranjan Behera
- Department of Forensic Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
| | - Sudheer Kumar Arava
- Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
| | - Naveen Kundu
- Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
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Byard RW. Diphtheria - 'The strangling angel' of children. J Forensic Leg Med 2012; 20:65-8. [PMID: 23357389 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2012.04.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2012] [Accepted: 04/20/2012] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Diphtheria, an acute infectious condition caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, was once a major killer of children. Although the mortality rates dropped dramatically in the mid-twentieth century, due to a combination of improved standards of living and immunization programs, outbreaks are still occurring. Two children, aged four and five years respectively, are reported to demonstrate characteristic features of lethal cases. Death in case 1 was due to an extensive upper airway pseudomembrane causing acute respiratory failure. The diagnosis of diphtheria was only made at postmortem. Death in case 2 was due to acute cardiac failure with heart block complicating diphtheria. Other mechanisms in fatal cases involve disseminated intravascular coagulation, renal and endocrine failure. Declining levels of immunity among adults has resulted in a change in the epidemiological pattern of the disease with an older age of victims in recent outbreaks. As a result of population shifts and failure to immunize children it is likely that forensic pathologists may see more cases of diphtheria in the future. Due to the rarity of cases in Western communities and atypical presentations, the diagnosis may only be established at autopsy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roger W Byard
- School of Medical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Level 3 Medical School North Building, Frome Rd, Adelaide, 5005 South Australia, Australia.
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Gradon JD. Space-occupying and life-threatening infections of the head, neck, and thorax. Infect Dis Clin North Am 1996; 10:857-78. [PMID: 8958172 DOI: 10.1016/s0891-5520(05)70330-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Infections of the deep structures of the head and neck are polymicrobial, rapidly progressive, and frequently life-threatening. The bacteriology, clinical presentation, and the need for multidisciplinary management of these infections are stressed. In addition, this article discusses selected head and neck infections of immunocompromised hosts and postexposure prophylaxis for serious infections of the pharynx.
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Affiliation(s)
- J D Gradon
- Department of Medicine, Sinai Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21215, USA
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