PROTEIN KINASES AS DRUG TARGET AGAINST TRYPANOSOMA BRUCEI

Abstract

Protein kinases are the most studied proteins as drug targets against deadly disease ‘sleeping sickness. The crystal structures for the Trypanosoma brucei protein kinase A catalytic subunit isoform 1 (PKAC1) and cell division-related protein kinase 2 (CDK2) are still not known. Therefore, homology models were constructed for the two proteins, based on their known amino acid sequences. The catalytic sites of both the proteins were then compared with their respective human homologs. Except for some conformational differences, the active site of TbrPKAC1 was found to be quite similar to that of the human homolog. Therefore, TbrPKAC1 cannot be considered as a very good drug target. Whereas, in the case of TbrCDK2, along with huge conformational differences, some important differences in the structure and nature of the binding site were also noticed when compared to their human homolog. Virtual screening was performed for TbrCDK2 and selected hits were analysed for the ligand-protein interactions. This analysis showed many important variations in TbrCDK2 from human homolog, which can be further explored as potential drug target.