In Silico prediction of putative antimicrobial targets in Legionellaceae family: A homology based methods

The Legionellaceae is a family of gram-negative bacteria that widely distributed in aquatic environments all over the world. This family consists of a single genus, Legionella that recognized as a reason of community-acquired and an uncommon cause of hospital-acquired of pneumonia [1]. Because of susceptibility of Legionella species to antibiotics and drug resistance, a new alternative treatment might be needed [2]. In the present study a comprehensive in silico target identification pipeline on Legionellaceae family done using a homology based computational method, comprising four steps of analyses [3]. Several sites were used, including ncbi, DEG,KEGG. Of 4358 analyzed proteins, 18 proteins were selected as final putative drug targets, including proteins involved in metabolism (amino acid, energy and lipid metabolisms), cellular transport, cell division and cell motility [4]. These proteins are essential genes and play a vital role for the cell to survive. Our homology based method considers the essentiality, specificity, druggability, subcellular localization, function and broad spectrum condition of drug targets. Although a sequence similarity of protein does not ensure the same structures or binding properties, using such homology based methods could ease the optimization and production of new drugs and vaccines. In conclusion, using homology- based methods could ease the optimization and production of new drugs and vaccines, which it can potentially be effective for the prevention and useful treatment of Legionella infections.

Keywords:

Homology based method , Legionellaceae , legionella pneumophila str paris (Lpp) , Drug targets , in silico.