PROTEIN MODELLING OF THE GENES OF ARTHRITIS: A REVIEW

Abstract

Arthritis is a medical condition which causes painful inflammation and stiffness of the joints. Apart from joints, tendons, ligaments, bones and muscles are also seen to be affected. In this study we are mainly focussing on the genes causing Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and gout. Rheumatoid arthritis is one of the most common types of autoimmune arthritis affecting the joints of hands and feet. On the other hand, gout is caused by accumulation of crystals in the joints. The list of genes that could cause arthritis was obtained from review of literature. This was followed by acquiring information about the protein structure with the help of RCSB PDB (PDB-101). SNPs for the protein without the structure were recovered through the SNP database (dbSNP) from the NCBI page. For them, the structure was predicted using I-TASSER software which is one of the most common approaches to protein structure and function prediction. Through the literature review 53 genes affecting RA were found. There 19 of them which were further checked for single nucleotide variation and protein structure prediction. Through our study we have modelled the protein for the genes without a structure which could be used to find binding affinity against active compounds of plants. This would help in drug discovery through target inhibition.