An in silico approach in identification of drug targets in Leishmania: A subtractive genomic and metabolic simulation analysis

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is one of the major health issue in developing countries. The current therapeutic regimen for this disease is less effective with lot of adverse effects thereby warranting an urgent need to develop not only new and selective drug candidates but also identification of effective drug targets. Here we present subtractive genomics procedure for identification of putative drug targets in Leishmania. Comprehensive druggability analysis has been carried out in the current work for identified metabolic pathways and drug targets. We also demonstrate effective metabolic simulation methodology to pinpoint putative drug targets in threonine biosynthesis pathway. Metabolic simulation data from the current study indicate that decreasing flux through homoserine kinase reaction can be considered as a good therapeutic opportunity. The data from current study is expected to show new avenue for designing experimental strategies in search of anti-leishmanial agents.

Keywords: Choke point analysis; Drug targets; Druggability; Leishmania; Metabolic control analysis; Metabolic simulations; Subtractive genomic; Threonine biosynthesis.