Start
Mar 20, 2017 - 16:00
End
Mar 20, 2017 - 17:00
Venue
Rm. No. 118 Ground floor Chemical Engg. Dept.
Event Type
Title
PKMzeta FOR NEUROTHERAPEUTIC INTERVENTIONS AND VISUALIZING DRUG-DISEASE ASSOCIATIONS.
Abstract: Neurological disorders are a group of incurable chronic disorders of central nervous (CNS) and peripheral nervous systems. Several extensive studies reported that an atypical protein kinase C PKMzeta plays a crucial role in neurodegenerative disorder such as Alzheimer’s maintenance of long term potentiation cognition neuropathic pain and cancer. Drug discovery efforts have been hindered due to the non-availability of the protein structure. Hence in the present study an attempt was made to classify and build open and closed models of the protein PKMzeta using comparative modeling and molecular dynamics approaches. The refined models were used to identify PKMzeta inhibitors utilizing a high-throughput virtual screening protocol from large commercial chemical and in-house databases. The selected hit compounds were subjected to in vitro luminescent based kinase assay and in vivo screening for their inhibitory activity on the target protein. The lead showed analgesic anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties. The results revealed the importance of PKMzeta inhibitions with neuro-therapeutic implications. Further an attempt was made to study the associations between drugs and diseases. Diseases from broad coverage of therapeutic areas were taken along with their FDA approved drugs with their respective gene signatures obtained from literature mining. Gene enrichment analysis was performed against set of genes (either from drugs/disease) using the R-package HTSanalyzeR. The most significant associations were visualized.Brief Bio: Dr. Priyanka Purkayastha completed her M.Tech and B.Tech degree in Bioinformatics from SASTRA University and SRM University respectively. She obtained her PhD in the area of drug discovery and development from BIT S PILANI Hyderabad campus under the guidance of Prof. D. Sriram Department of Pharmacy. She also has a P.G. Diploma in Patent law from NALSAR University. Dr. Priyanka has 2 years of industrial experience with GVK Biosciences in Pharma Analytics Team.