09 Mar 2023|Noida | Amity University, Noida
Scientists from Amity University and the US develop a key network to identify drug and vaccine targets
for “Chagas Disease” to help poor patients
![]()
Scientists from Amity University Uttar Pradesh, and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, USA have developed a key molecular map which can identify important drugs and vaccine targets for the deadly, infectious “Chagas Disease”. The results of this study have been published in the Switzerland-based Scientific journal “Vaccine” titled ‘A Data-Driven Approach to Construct a Molecular Map of Trypanosoma cruzi to Identify Drugs and Vaccine Targets’.
The study was authored by Dr Kamal Rawal, Professor & Project Director at the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity University, along with, senior co-authors from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, including Dr Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Dr Maria Elena Bottazzi, Senior Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, and Dr Ulrich Strych, Associate Professor of Pediatrics. The research was funded by the Kleberg Foundation, USA, Texas Children’s Hospital, and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA. The study was also co-authored by Mr. Swarsat Kaushik Nath, Ms. Preeti Pankajakshan and Ms. Trapti Sharma.
Chagas Disease (CD) is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and it affects 6–7 million patients and the majority of them belong to poor strata. The study of CD and T. cruzi is challenging and till date, no definite treatment is available for the same. Chagas disease is considered a neglected tropical disease and has been declared an “endemic” in 21 countries in America, and the migration of infected people can transport the disease to non-endemic countries of America and the world. Scientists at Amity University Noida took up this challenge and a new data-driven hybrid approach was used to extract the relevant information related to the pathogen’s pathway, genes, proteins, drugs, etc.
The team assembled an interactive network of the complex relations that occur between molecules within Trypanosoma cruzi reported by Dr. Peter J. Hotez. The network contains the molecules that are known to participate in important pathways like the ERK1/2 mitogen-activated kinase pathway, etc. Several housekeeping genes on the map, such as bap1 (BRCA1 associated protein), coq4, etc. and drugs reported as inhibitors of the T. cruzi growth were also included in the network.
Dr Kamal Rawal, Professor & Project Director at the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity University, said, “We created state of art technologies to examine millions of scientific records and create a new system to find drugs and vaccine targets against this disease. Apart from the technology, we used the services of several expert curators to verify the data. We took over 3 years to complete this project. Our software and AI development team also created a new pipeline for ultra-large-scale docking and used high-end computational infrastructure for computing.”
Dr Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Bayor College of Medicine in Houston, stated, “This work is a significant milestone in understanding Trypanosoma pathobiology and the vaccine development journey for Chagas disease. It is noteworthy that the teams led by Dr Hotez and Dr Bottazzi have been instrumental in bringing several vaccines to the market including Corbevax (COVID-19 vaccine).”
Dr Ulrich Strych, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said, “We deployed an automated docking pipeline to conduct large-scale docking studies involving several thousand drugs and potential targets to identify network-based binding propensities. Furthermore, the network pharmacology approach was used to study “compound-protein/genes-disease” pathways.”
Dr Maria Elena Bottazzi, Senior Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, said, “Our analysis could identify potential important targets, such as type B ribose 5-phosphate isomerase, a flagellar calcium-binding protein, and prostaglandin F synthase. These proteins have been reported as potential vaccine and drug targets in multiple research studies.”
Congratulating the Amity Scientists, Dr Ashok K. Chauhan, Founder President, Amity Education Group, averred, “We are extremely proud of our Scientists for this huge achievement, which will contribute to nation building and benefit the society. The young, budding scientists and researchers should establish their startups and develop innovative products and technologies to make India self-reliant.”
Sharing her views, Dr Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, suggested that such kind of technologies and services should be exported not only to developed countries but also to third-world countries wherein infectious diseases are common.