In-Silico Studies of Essential Metabolic Reactions of Trypanosoma brucei: Identifying Potential Drug Targets

Chinedu, S. N. and Fatumo, S. and Adebiyi, E. F. (2015) In-Silico Studies of Essential Metabolic Reactions of Trypanosoma brucei: Identifying Potential Drug Targets. In: BCBGC-10. ISRST, pp. 31-36. ISBN 978-1-60651-017-9

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Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the metabolic pathways of Trypanosoma brucei and identify essential reactions that may be considered as drug targets. Data from the metabolic reaction database of TrypanoCyc version10.0.0 was used to establish a connected graph. The analysis of the biochemical network is based on its topology. The metabolic network was implemented with Perl. Two reactions were defined as neighbours if a metabolite that is the product of one reaction and substrate of the other exists. This yielded a bipartite graph of alternating reaction and metabolic compound nodes. A graph based algorithms were used to analyze the structure of the biochemical networks to infer differences when exposed to changing nutrient and environmental conditions. Choke-points and load-points were used to estimate if reactions are essential for the organism. This produced a network of 809 metabolites and 798 reactions. With this strategy, we have identified 99 essential enzymatic reactions. These reactions can serve as drug targets to inhibit a normal metabolic flow in the parasite without harming the host. Further work is required to design drugs that can inhibit the targets

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology
Divisions:	Faculty of Engineering, Science and Mathematics > School of Electronics and Computer Science
Depositing User:	Mrs Patricia Nwokealisi
Date Deposited:	26 Nov 2015 11:28
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2016 08:56
URI:	http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/id/eprint/5668

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