Current Advances in the Identification and Characterization of Putative Drug and Vaccine Targets in the Bacterial Genomes

Title:Current Advances in the Identification and Characterization of Putative Drug and Vaccine Targets in the Bacterial Genomes

Volume: 16 Issue: 9

Author(s): Mohd. Shahbaaz, Krishna Bisetty, Faizan Ahmad and Md. Imtaiyaz Hassan

Affiliation:

Keywords: Hypothetical proteins, Drug targets, Genomic analyses, Sequence based function prediction, Structure-Function relationship, Molecular Dynamics simulations.

Abstract: The development in sequencing technologies over the past few decades have increased the pace of decoding genetic and functional information present in the genomes of pathogenic microorganisms. The knowledge obtained through sequencing projects facilitated the identification of genes that codes for virulence factors. A major portion of genomes of pathogenic of bacteria contains genes which are classified as “hypothetical or uncharacterized”. Due to unavailability of precise information about the functionality of these genes, the pathogenic mechanisms utilized by varieties of microorganisms are not fully understood. This respective class of proteins draws a significant interest of pharmaceutical research as they have potential to provide new clues regarding the development of novel therapeutics particularly against the multidrug resistant strains of bacteria. The in silico identification of putative drug and vaccine targets in the set of uncharacterized proteins through comparative and subtractive genome analyses facilitates the increase usability and efficiency of the present drugs. The functional annotation of these characterized target proteins can uncover varieties of biochemical pathways important for the survival and pathogenesis of bacteria. This review focuses on the current protocols available for identification and functional annotations of these uncharacterized potential therapeutic targets.

Cite this article as:

Shahbaaz Mohd., Bisetty Krishna, Ahmad Faizan and Hassan Imtaiyaz Md., Current Advances in the Identification and Characterization of Putative Drug and Vaccine Targets in the Bacterial Genomes, Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry 2016; 16 (9) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1568026615666150825143307