PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS AND HOMOLOGY BASED INHIBITOR DESIGN FOR SHORT NEUROTOXINS OF FOREST COBRA

Abstract

Naja commonly referred as Cobra is a genus of venomous elapid snakes found in the Middle East, India, and southern eastern Asia posse’s complex mixture of toxin proteins which are found to have pharmacological activities. These neurotoxins bind specifically to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, thereby blocking synaptic nerve transmission. Short neurotoxin protein sequences of Cobra were retrieved from Swiss prot database and multiple sequence alignment was performed on the retrieved sequences using ClustalX. Phylogenetic relationships were analyzed using Phylip software and sequences were modeled through Modeller 9v8. The quality of the model was validated by the Structural analysis verification server. Tropine derived from Ashwagandha was investigated for its skeletal muscle relaxant property. The interaction between the inhibitors and the predicted structures of short neurotoxin were analyzed Insilco by ArgusLab. From this study we conclude that short neurotoxin of Naja oxiana showed the higher affinity towards Tropine.