Search

Adefovir is an adenosine analogue approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. Mutations occurring in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) reverse transcriptase (rt) domains are shown to confer resistance to antiviral drugs. The role of the rtI233V mutation and adefovir resistance remains contradictory. In this study, it was attempted to evaluate the impact of putative rtI233V substitution on adefovir action by homology modeling and docking studies. The HBVrt nucleotide sequence containing rtI233V mutation was obtained from the treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B subject. The three dimensional model of HBV polymerase/rt was constructed using the HIV-1rt template (PDB code: 1RTD A) and the model was evaluated by the Ramachandran plot. Autodock was employed to dock the HBV polymerase/rt and adefovir. The modelled structure showed the amino acid rtI233 to be located away from the drug interactory site. The substitution of isoleucine to valine did not appear to affect the catalytic sites of the protein. In addition, it does not alter the conformation of bent structure formed by residues 235 to 240 that stabilizes the binding of dNTPs. Therefore, it was predicted that rtI233V substitution may not independently affect the antiviral action of adefovir and incoming dNTP binding.

Viral Protein Database is an interactive database for three dimensional viral proteins. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive resource to the community of structural virology, with an emphasis on the description of derived data from structural biology. Currently, VPDB includes ˜1,670 viral protein structures from >277 viruses with more than 465 virus strains. The whole database can be easily accessed through the user convenience text search. Interactivity has been enhanced by using Jmol, WebMol and Strap to visualize the viral protein molecular structure. Availability The database is available for free at http://www.vpdb.bicpu.edu.in

The neutral sphingomyelinase (N-SMase) is considered a major candidate for mediating the stress-induced production of ceramide, and it plays an important role in cell-cycle arrest, apoptosis, inflammation, and eukaryotic stress responses. Recent studies have identified a small region at the very N-terminus of the 55 kDa tumour necrosis factor receptor (TNF-R55), designated the neutral sphingomyelinase activating domain (NSD) that is responsible for the TNF-induced activation of N-SMase. There is no direct association between TNF-R55 NSD and N-SMase; instead, a protein named factor associated with N-SMase activation (FAN) has been reported to couple the TNF-R55 NSD to N-SMase. Since the three-dimensional fold of N-SMase is still unknown, we have modeled the structure using the protein fold recognition and threading method. Moreover, we propose models for the TNF-R55 NSD as well as the FAN protein in order to study the structural basis of N-SMase activation and regulation. Protein-protein interaction studies suggest that FAN is crucially involved in mediating TNF-induced activation of the N-SMase pathway, which in turn regulates mitogenic and proinflammatory responses. Inhibition of N-SMase may lead to reduction of ceramide levels and hence may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for inflammation and autoimmune diseases. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to check the stability of the predicted model and protein-protein complex; indeed, stable RMS deviations were obtained throughout the simulation. Furthermore, in silico docking of low molecular mass ligands into the active site of N-SMase suggests that His135, Glu48, Asp177, and Asn179 residues play crucial roles in this interaction. Based on our results, these ligands are proposed to be potent and selective N-SMase inhibitors, which may ultimately prove useful as lead compounds for drug development.

Alkaline sphingomyelinase, which is expressed in the human intestine and hydrolyses sphingomyelin, is a component of the plasma and the lysosomal membranes. Hydrolase of sphingomyelin generates ceramide, sphingosine, and sphingosine 1-phosphate that have regulatory effects on vital cellular functions such as proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. The enzyme belongs to the Nucleotide Pyrophosphatase/Phosphodiesterase family and it differs in structural similarity with acidic and neutral sphingomyelinase. In the present study we modeled alkaline sphingomyelinase using homology modeling based on the structure of Nucleotide Pyrophosphatase/Phosphodiesterase from Xanthomonas axonopodis with which it shares 34% identity. Homology modeling was performed using Modeller9v7. We found that Cys78 and Cys394 form a disulphide bond. Further analysis shows that Ser76 may be important for the function of this enzyme, which is supported by the findings of Wu et al. (2005), that S76F abolishes the activity completely. We found that the residues bound to Zn(2+) are conserved and geometrically similar with the template. Molecular Dynamics simulations were carried out for the modeled protein to observe the effect of Zinc metal ions. It was observed that the metal ion has little effect with regard to the stability but induces increased fluctuations in the protein. These analyses showed that Zinc ions play an important role in stabilizing the secondary structure and in maintaining the compactness of the active site.