title: Identification of potential drug targets by subtractive genome analysis of Bacillus anthracis A0248: An in silico approach.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bacillus anthracis is a gram positive, spore forming, rod shaped bacteria which is the etiologic agent of anthrax - cutaneous, pulmonary and gastrointestinal. A recent outbreak of anthrax in a tropical region uncovered natural and in vitro resistance against penicillin, ciprofloxacin, quinolone due to over exposure of the pathogen to these antibiotics. This fact combined with the ongoing threat of using B. anthracis as a biological weapon proves that the identification of new therapeutic targets is urgently needed.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this computational approach various databases and online based servers were used to detect essential proteins of B. anthracis A0248. Protein sequences of B. anthracis A0248 strain were retrieved from the NCBI database which was then run in CD-hit suite for clustering. NCBI BlastP against the human proteome and similarity search against DEG were done to find out essential human non-homologous proteins. Proteins involved in unique pathways were analyzed using KEGG genome database and PSORTb, CELLO v.2.5, ngLOC - these three tools were used to deduce putative cell surface proteins.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Successive analysis revealed 116 proteins to be essential human non-homologs among which 17 were involved in unique metabolic pathways and 28 were predicted as membrane associated proteins. Both types of proteins can be exploited as they are unlikely to have homologous counterparts in the human host.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Being human non-homologous, these proteins can be targeted for potential therapeutic drug development in future. Targets on unique metabolic and membrane-bound proteins can block cell wall synthesis, bacterial replication and signal transduction respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University Of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Anisur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University Of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Sanaullah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Noore
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University Of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh. Electronic address: anayet_johny@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Anayet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hasan
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University Of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Rakib
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ullah
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University Of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Hafijur
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University Of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Amzad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hossain
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University Of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Yeasmeen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University Of Chittagong, Chittagong-4331, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Saiful
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Islam
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001408:Bacillus anthracis / Q000235:genetics*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D030562:Databases, Protein; D055808:Drug Discovery; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D020543:Proteome; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D020543:Proteome
keywords: Anthrax; Bacillus anthracis; Biological weapon; Computational approach; Therapeutic drug