Designing potential siRNA molecules for silencing the gene of the nucleocapsid protein of Nipah virus: A computational investigation.
Infect Genet Evol
; 102: 105310, 2022 08.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1977647
ABSTRACT
Nipah virus (NiV), a zoonotic virus, engenders severe infections with noticeable complications and deaths in humans and animals. Since its emergence, it is frightening, this virus has been causing regular outbreaks in various countries, particularly in Bangladesh, India, and Malaysia. Unfortunately, no efficient vaccine or drug is available now to combat this baneful virus. NiV employs its nucleocapsid protein for genetic material packaging, which is crucial for viral replication inside the host cells. The small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can play a central role in inhibiting the expression of disease-causing viral genes by hybridization and subsequent inactivation of the complementary target viral mRNAs through the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway. Therefore, potential siRNAs as molecular therapeutics against the nucleocapsid protein gene of NiV were designed in this study. First, ten prospective siRNAs were identified using the conserved nucleocapsid gene sequences among all available NiV strains collected from various countries. After that, off-target binding, GC (guanine-cytosine) content, secondary structure, binding affinity with the target, melting temperature, efficacy analysis, and binding capacity with the human argonaute protein 2 (AGO2) of these siRNAs were evaluated to predict their suitability. These designed siRNA molecules bear promise in silencing the NiV gene encoding the nucleocapsid protein and thus can alleviate the severity of this dangerous virus. Further in vivo experiments are recommended before using these designed siRNAs as alternative and effective molecular therapeutic agents against NiV.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Nipah Virus
/
Henipavirus Infections
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Animals
Language:
English
Journal:
Infect Genet Evol
Journal subject:
Biology
/
Communicable Diseases
/
Genetics
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.meegid.2022.105310
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