Title: Identification of structural stability of mutated Hepatitis B Virus capsid proteins by nanoenvironmental energetics measurements

Authors: Harish Chandra Soundararajan, Muthukumaran Sivanandham

Addresses: Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Pennalur, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India. ' Department of Biotechnology, Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Pennalur, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) is a commonly occurring human pathogen with an estimated 300 million carriers worldwide. This work presents a bioinformatics approach toward identifying amino acids for point mutation in Hepatitis B capsid (HBc) protein to prevent interaction of the virion|s core protein with its surface protein. Based on the nanoenvironmental energetic measurements using bioinformatics tools, point mutations in the dimeric region of core protein were studied for changes in the dimensions of the key geometric parameters. The results provide structural insight regarding the important parameters contributing to HBV synthesis. This work paves the way for future pharmaceutical applications aimed at destabilisation of the HBV capsid-surface protein interactions.

Keywords: HBc; hepatitis B capsid proteins; protein interaction; structural stability; point mutation; destabilisation; mutated Hepatitis B virus; nanoenvironmental energetics; bioinformatics; amino acids; HBV synthesis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFIPM.2008.021393

International Journal of Functional Informatics and Personalised Medicine, 2008 Vol.1 No.3, pp.295 - 310

Published online: 22 Nov 2008 *

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