Somnath Waghmare et al. / Drug Invention Today 2014,6(1),58-61 Drug Invention Today Vol.6.Issue.1.January 2014 58-61 Research Article Available online through www.ditonline.info ABSTRACT Two structurally novel classes of small helix-rich Fatty acid and retinoid binding (FAR) proteins are produced by parasitic nematodes. The plant and animal hosts of these parasitic nematodes have no counterparts of these proteins. FAR proteins play an active role in nematode development and survival when in contact with host tissue. Thus FAR proteins represent potential targets for new synthetic drug designing. A 3-dimensional model (3D) was designed for the Fatty acid and retinoid binding protein (178 aa) from the filarial nematode Acanthocheilonema viteae. A predicted model was constructed for the target protein using SWISS-MODEL. The constructed model was validated using protein structure checking tools for reliability. The prediction of 3D structure of a protein is a prerequisite and is also required for identifying the conformational epitopes which are essential for synthetic drug designing vaccines. Altogether, these data makes FAR protein a potentially valuable target for drug and vaccine development against filarial nematodes. Key words: 3D structure, Acanthocheilonema viteae, Drug, FAR protein, Filarial nematode, SWISS-MODEL * Corresponding author. Dr.Somnath Waghmare, Assistant Professor Department of Zoology, Nowrosjee Wadia College of Arts and Science, Pune-411001, University of Pune, Pune, Maharashtra,India. Homology modeling of fatty acid and retinoid binding (FAR) protein from the filarial nematode Acanthocheilonema viteae Somnath Waghmare* 1 , Abhishek Buxi 1 , Ram Chavan 2 * 1 Department of Zoology, Nowrosjee Wadia College of Arts and Science,Pune-411001, University of Pune, Pune, Maharashtra,India. 2 Department of Zoology, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathawada University Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. Received on: 20-11-2013; Revised on: 10-12- 2013; Accepted on:19-01-2014 ISSN: 0975-7619 INTRODUCTION Parasitic nematodes are creating a major global ecological, economical and medical threat not only to plants and animals, but also towards human beings. To date, approximately 30,000 nematode species have been identified 1 , however, the total estimated number of species is over one million 2 . Worldwide among the known species of nematodes, more than 16,000 species are parasites of plants, animals and humans, causing various diseases of socio-economic importance 3,4 . Across FARs promote the absorption, transportation and specific localization of fatty acid and retinoid 8,9 . Retinol plays important roles in gene activation, cell signaling, and tissue differentiation and repairation 9,10,11 . Thus the secreted FARs can help nematodes not only to obtain the lipid nutrition from the host, but also to infect the host and inhibit the host defense mechanism 12 . Nematodes require fatty acids and retinol for lipid biosynthesis and assembly of macromolecular structures, including the cuticle and developing embryos 13,14 . Parasitic nematodes are unable to synthesize fatty acids and retinol de novo in order to satisfy various biological requirements 15 . While free living stages presumably acquire fatty acids from the environment, parasitic stages must have access to host- derived stores. This makes the characterization of novel fatty acid binding proteins important for understanding both nematode biology and pathogenesis. The fatty acid and retinoid binding (FAR) proteins Currently, neither efficient drugs nor vaccines are available to eliminate or prevent filarial infections, hence 3D structure prediction of FAR protein provides the new target area for development of control strategies against filarial infections. make up the second class of nematode fatty acid binding proteins. FAR proteins are single domain proteins of approximately 20 kDa that exhibit a unique α-helix rich coiled coil structure compared with mammalian fatty acid binding proteins 10 . the world about 160 million people are affected by the filarial nematodes, which are the causative agents of tropical diseases, filariases 5 . Acanthocheilonema viteae , previously known as Dipetalonema viteae, is a rodent filarial worm that is often used as a model to study human filarial infections. Adult filarial nematodes are usually found in the body cavities and/or subcutaneous tissues of their mammalian host 6 . Acanthocheilonema viteae shares considerable antigenic homology with the human filarial worm Onchocerca volvulus 7 .