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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Antimicrobials, Resistance and Chemotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1484423
Subtractive Genomics and Comparative Metabolic Pathways Profiling Revealed Novel Drug Targets in Ureaplasma urealyticum
Provisionally accepted- 1 Institute of pathogenic biology, Hengyang, China
- 2 Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory for Special Pathogens Prevention and Control, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan Province, China
- 3 Special Inspection Department, Hengyang traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Hengyang, Hunan, CHina, Hengyang, Hunan Province, China
- 4 The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Hunan, China
Ureaplasma urealyticum, which is commonly present in the human lower genitourinary tract as a commensal organism, has been associated with various urogenital infections along with several complications in certain individuals. Increasing issue of antibiotic resistance, coupled with the scarcity of vaccines, underscores the necessity to explore novel drug targets for effectively treating U. urealyticum infection. In this research, we focus on identifying novel drug target proteins against U. urealyticum using a subtractive genomics approach integrated with comparative metabolic pathway analysis. Through diverse subtractive genomics methods, we systematically narrowed down the complete proteomes of thirteen shortlisted Ureaplasma strains to two target proteins, which we proposed as novel therapeutic targets. Subsequently, these two target proteins, designated B5ZC96 and B5ZAH8, were selected for further structure-based studies. These proteins could serve as a starting point for developing lead drug candidates that could potentially inhibit them and reduce the risk of drug-resistant U. urealyticum infection. Ultimately, targeting these enzymatic proteins could pave the way for targeted therapy against U. urealyticum.
Keywords: Ureaplasma urealyticum, Subtractive genomics, Metabolic pathways, virtual highthroughput screening, Drug Targets
Received: 21 Aug 2024; Accepted: 21 Oct 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Zhang, Zeng, Wang, Zhou and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhuojia Zhang, Institute of pathogenic biology, Hengyang, China
Wei Wang, Special Inspection Department, Hengyang traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Hengyang, Hunan, CHina, Hengyang, Hunan Province, China
Hui Zhou, The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Hunan, China
Yimou Wu, Institute of pathogenic biology, Hengyang, China
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