Characterization of Human-malarial Parasite Species based on DHFR and GST Targets Resulting in Changes in Anti-malarial Drug Binding Conformations

Abstract

Background: In this study, we focused primarily on three anti-malarial drugs that were tested against two malarial targets. Anti-malarial drugs like chloroquine, mefloquine, proguanil were chosen, while DHFR and GST targets from human malaria parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium vivax were considered for the study. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the sequence and structural similarity of proteins DHFR and GST among four Plasmodium species as well as to discover in silico interactions with aforementioned drug candidates. Methods: To conduct research, many bioinformatics databases like PDB, UniProt, DrugBank, PubChem; tools, and software’s like Phyre 2.0, Clustal O (1.2.4), and AutoDock 4, AutoDock vina, Discovery studio visualizer were used to determine the evolutionary significance of Plasmodium species. Result: Hence that variation has shown a difference in the binding patterns of drugs with target proteins. Our findings revealed Plasmodium spp divergence or convergence as well as how structurally and sequentially they share similar or dissimilar features Conclusion: As a result of the diversity, variations in protein-drug binding patterns have emerged.