Structure prediction against Bm 17DIII gene product of Brugia malayi

IntroductionBrugia malayi is one of the causative agents of lymphatic filariasis. Lymphatic filariasis has threatened around 1.3 billion people in 81 countries and infected approximately 120 million people worldwide in developing and under-developed countries. This disease has been identified as the second leading cause of permanent and long term disability in year 1995. Thus WHO has targeted filariasis for elimination by year 2020. A recombinant protein BmR1 expressed from Bm17DIII gene, a highly specific and sensitive antigen for the detection of B. malayi was used as filariasis diagnosis in BRUGIArapid^TM. However, the structure of BmR1 protein is yet to be elucidated.ObjectiveTo predict the structure of Bm17DIII gene product of B. malayi.MethodsThe protein structure was predicted via in silico approaches namely comparative modeling, ab initio and threading methods. The predicted structures were evaluated for its backbone conformation, compatibility and overall quality factor.Results & DiscussionWe compared the structures modeled by two comparative modeling methods, four ab initio methods and one threading/ab initio method. Structure obtained from ab initio approach (Rosetta) showed the best scoring for the backbone conformation of 98.5% in Ramachandran plot, 97.0% for the compatibility of the model (3D) with the sequence (1D) and overall quality of 71.0%.ConclusionThe structure obtained from this study could lead to the development of antigen-based filariasis diagnostic to complement BRUGIArapid^TM when a binder specific against BmR1 is designed.