Title

Study on Regulation of Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Metabolism using PCSK9 Gene Silencing: A computational Approach

Authors

Bhooma Vijayaraghavan¹, Kavitha Danabal², Giri Padmanabhan¹, Kumaresan Ramanathan³*

Affiliation

¹Kidney Care, C50, 10TH B Cross, East Thillai Nagar, Tiruchirappalli-620 018, India;

²Department of Botany & Microbiology, AVVM Sri Puspam College (Autonomous), Poondi, Thanjavur, India;

³Department of Medical Biochemistry, Division of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University (Ayder Campus), Mekelle, Ethiopia;

Email

kumaresanramanatha@gmail.com; kumaresan.ramanathas@mu.edu.et;

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received April 19, 2018; Revised May 5, 2018; Accepted May 30, 2018; Published May 31, 2018

Combating and preventing abnormality in lipid metabolism becomes a pivotal criterion for research. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is a circulating protein; it promotes the degradation of low-density lipoprotein receptors (LDL-R) and hence increases LDL-C levels. Silencing the gene PCSK9 at post-transcriptional level with the help of small interfering Ribo nucleic acid (siRNA) gives a new insight and a novel therapeutic way to regulate LDL-C metabolism. Designing and selecting an efficient siRNA for silencing PCSK9 at post transcriptional level through computational approach. We have designed three siRNAs to silence each mRNA of PCSK9 through computational analysis using software Invivogen. Their minimum free energy of hybridization along with their secondary structure was obtained using bioinformatics tool BIBISERV2-RNAHYBRID. Further factors like GC content, structural linearity and h-b index of mRNA-siRNA complex was calculated to assess their knockdown efficiency. The minimum free energy of hybridization of the three designed siRNA1, siRNA2 and siRNA3 for target mRNA is as follows -27.1kcal/mol, -25.7kcal/mol and -28.8 kcal/mol. siRNA1 having the least minimum free energy of hybridization i.e. -27.1 kcal/mol are predicted to be the most efficient towards the PCSK9 gene silencing.

Keywords

PCSK9 mRNA, siRNA, LDL, free energy of hybridization, knock down

Citation

Vijayaraghavan et al. Bioinformation 14(5): 248-251 (2018)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.