RESEARCH ARTICLE


Homology Modeling and Prediction of Catalytic Amino Acid in the Neurotoxin from Indian Cobra (Naja naja)



Pallavi Somvanshi*, Vijai Singh
Bioinformatics centre, Biotech Park, Sector-G Jankipuram, Lucknow-226021, Uttar Pradesh, India


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Creative Commons License
© 2008 Somvanshi and Singh

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Bioinformatics centre, Biotech Park, Sector-G Jankipuram, Lucknow-226021, Uttar Pradesh, India; Tel: +91 522 4012076; Fax: +91 522 4012081; E-mail: psomvanshi@gmail.com


Abstract

The neurotoxin secreted by Indian cobra (Naja naja) binds to acetylcholine receptor of nerve cells, which leads to a lump in the nerve impulse, ceases breathing, thereby causing the death of a person due to suffocation. These neurotoxins are small peptide with approximately 7 kDa. Homology modeling was performed to generate the 3D structure of neurotoxins (A, B, C and D) of N. naja, using the known protein template crystal structure (PDB: 2CTX). The validation of 3D structure was done using PROCHECK. Furthermore, the prediction of catalytic amino acid residues in the active site domain of the 3-D structure of neurotoxin was identified. The 3-D structures of neurotoxin and catalytic amino acid residue may be used to target and design the antivenom drugs against the Indian cobra.

Keywords: Naja naja, Neurotoxin, Acetylcholine receptor, Antivenom.