In Silico Identification of Dual Ability of N. gonorrhoeae ddl for Developing Drug and Vaccine Against Pathogenic Neisseria and Other Human Pathogens

Debmalya Barh, Amarendra Naray

Abstract

The transmission and prevention of gonococcal infection is a global health problem and an effective drug or vaccine against the pathogen is yet to be developed. In our previous studies by analyzing metabolic pathways and membrane proteome of N. gonorrhoeae we found that four membrane associated targets could be better option in developing anti- gonorrhoeae drugs and vaccine. Here we showed that among these putative targets, D-alanine—D-alanine ligase (ddl) is the best candidate for development of both drug and vac- cine against N. gonorrhoeae and various other human bac- terial pathogens. Using in silico approaches, we developed the 3-D model of the enzyme and potential epitopes are also identified that may be helpful in peptide vaccine develop- ment against multiple pathogens including pathogenic Neis- seria . Epitopes require experimental validation for their ef- fectiveness as peptide vaccines against these pathogens.