Computational Studies of Virulent proteins and Antibiotic Resistance in Diarrheal Pathogens

Abstract

Diarrhea is a condition that involves the frequent passing of loose or watery stools. Diarrhea may be caused by Inflammatory Bowel Syndrome (IBS), an allergy, or an infection due to a virus, bacteria, or parasite. Diarrhea is also associated with other infections such as malaria and measles. Chemical irritation of the gut or non-infectious bowel disease can also result in diarrhea. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) each year approximately 1.7 billion deaths are attributable to diarrhea. In highest burdened regions like Southeast Asia and Africa, diarrhea is responsible for as much as 8.5% and 7.7% of all deaths respectively. In children under the age of 5 years, 80% of the deaths occur due to diarrhea only. Children are more susceptible to the complications of diarrhea because a smaller amount of fluid loss leads to dehydration, compared to adults. Although usually not harmful, diarrhea can become dangerous or signal a more serious problem. Major contributors to the diseases are bacteria, viruses and parasites. Enormous data about these pathogenic organisms is available from different information portals which need to be compiled for providing better treatment strategy. Although, currently available treatment methods which include Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), antibiotics and vaccines had reduced the diseases burden to some extent, but due to the increasing problem of drug resistance, control of infectious disease is becoming more difficult. Antibiotic resistance in case of Traveler s Diarrhea (TD) is an important public health concern. Large numbers of antibiotics are being employed to cure traveler s diarrhea, but widespread use of these antibiotics has developed resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria.Hence, it is crucial to understand the resistance mechanism and devising novel solution to combat this problem. newlineIn this study, we first developed a database named dbDiarrhea, where Pathogen proteins, host proteins, Type Three Secretion System (T3SS) Effectors and T3SS Inhibitors information is a