Identification of potent inhibitors against OspC and VlsE1 proteins of Borrelia burgdorferi, causal agent of Lyme disease, using in Silico approaches
Student name: Ms Deepti Sawhney
Guide: Dr Pallavi Somvanshi
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: TERI University
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Sudipta Chatterjee
Abstract: Lyme disease is a zoonotic disease affecting the central nervous system and could be fatal if not treated in the initial stages. It is caused by bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi and is transmitted through tick, Ixodes spp. Two virulent proteins of B. burgdorferi, OspC and VlsE1 are responsible for early and late infection of lyme disease respectively. The present study is the first ever study, where in silico approach was used in order to find out the potential inhibitors against OspC and VlsE1. BLASTp analysis failed to identify any protein sequences showing substantial similarity to OspC and VlsE1. The drugs showing high negative docking energy namely, doxycycline, tetracycline and sulphamethoxazole, were selected by using molecular docking software, AutoDock. The ADMET properties of these three drugs were studied through ADMETSAR. In summary, in silico analysis of OspC and VlsE1 revealed that the early and late infection of Lyme disease can be controlled in humans using doxycycline, tetracycline and sulphamethoxazole. These drugs need to be validated in laboratory, after which, they have a huge potential to combat early and late infection of Lyme disease.
Keywords: zoonotic, homology, molecular docking, ADMET properties, BLASTp.
