ABSTRACT
Schizophrenia (SZ), a chronic mental and heritable disorder characterized by neurophysiological impairment and neuropsychological abnormalities, is strongly associated with D-amino acid oxidase activator (DAOA, G72). Research studies emphasized that overexpression of DAOA may be responsible for improper functioning of neurotransmitters, resulting in neurological disorders like SZ. In the present study, a hybrid approach of comparative modeling and molecular docking followed by inhibitor identification and structure modeling was employed. Screening was performed by two-dimensional similarity search against selected inhibitor, keeping in view the physiochemical properties of the inhibitor. Here, we report an inhibitor compound which showed maximum binding affinity against four selected isoforms of DAOA. Docking studies revealed that Glu-53, Thr-54, Lys-58, Val-85, Ser-86, Tyr-87, Leu-88, Glu-90, Leu-95, Val-98, Ser-100, Glu-112, Tyr-116, Lys-120, Asp-121, and Arg-122 are critical residues for receptor-ligand interaction. The C-terminal of selected isoforms is conserved, and binding was observed on the conserved region of isoforms. We propose that selected inhibitor might be more potent on the basis of binding energy values. Further analysis of this inhibitor through site-directed mutagenesis could be helpful for exploring the details of ligand-binding pockets. Overall, the findings of this study may be helpful in designing novel therapeutic targets to cure SZ.
Subject(s)
Antipsychotic Agents/pharmacology , Carrier Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors , Computer-Aided Design , Drug Design , Molecular Docking Simulation , Schizophrenia/drug therapy , Amino Acid Sequence , Antipsychotic Agents/chemistry , Antipsychotic Agents/metabolism , Binding Sites , Carrier Proteins/chemistry , Carrier Proteins/metabolism , Computational Biology , Humans , Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins , Ligands , Molecular Sequence Data , Molecular Structure , Protein Binding , Protein Isoforms , Schizophrenia/enzymology , Structure-Activity RelationshipABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Primary microcephaly is a disorder of the brain resulting in a reduced head circumference that can come along with intellectual disability but with hardly any other neurological abnormalities. CASE PRESENTATION: In this study we report on three Pakistani males from a consanguineous family with 2, 4 and 25 years, diagnosed with autosomal recessive primary microcephaly. By genotyping, Sanger sequencing and using bioinformatical approaches the disease causing mutation was identified and evaluated. CONCLUSION: By using a 250K SNP array, we were able to detect an 11Mb large autozygous region in the MCPH2 locus on chromosome 19q13.12. Sequencing of the associated gene, WDR62, revealed the frameshift causing single base pair duplication, c.2527dupG. This mutation is predicted to affect the structural features of WDR62 which in turn changes the conformation and function of the protein. Aspartic acid (D) at position 843 was found to be conserved among various ortholog species. The present findings will be helpful in genetic diagnosis of patients and future studies of WDR62.
