Identification of membrane associated drug targets in Borrelia burgdorferi ZS7- subtractive genomics approach

Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by a spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi ZS7. This spirochete is most often spread by ticks. Single antibiotic therapy is sufficient for containment of the early stage progression of the disease but combinational therapy is more preferred in later stages. Research is in progress for the development of drugs against the pathogen, but till date no vaccines have been developed to effect the late stage infections. There is a rapid rise in the cases of antibiotic-resistant population which is more than 10% of the total infected individuals. In such condition vaccine becomes the sole alternative for prevention. Therefore effective treatment includes antibiotic combination and combination of antigenic surfaces (for vaccine preparation). Thus, a comprehensive list of drug targets unique to the microorganisms is often necessary. Availability of Borrelia burgdorferi ZS7 proteome has enabled insilico analysis of protein sequences for the identification of drug targets and vaccine targets. In this study, 272 essential proteins were identified out of which 42 proteins were unique to the microorganism. The study identified 15 membrane localized drug targets. Amongst these 15, molecular modeling and structure validation of the five membrane localized drug target proteins could only be achieved because of the low sequence identity of the remaining proteins with RCSB structures. These 3D structures can be further characterized by invitro and invivo studies for the development of novel vaccine epitopes and novel antibiotic therapy against Borrelia burgdorferi.