An Integrative Computational Approach for the Prediction of Human-Plasmodium Protein-Protein Interactions

Abstract EN

Host-pathogen molecular cross-talks are critical in determining the pathophysiology of a specific infection.

Most of these cross-talks are mediated via protein-protein interactions between the host and the pathogen (HP-PPI).

Thus, it is essential to know how some pathogens interact with their hosts to understand the mechanism of infections.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by an obligate intracellular parasite belonging to the Plasmodium genus, of which P.

falciparum is the most prevalent.

Several previous studies predicted human-plasmodium protein-protein interactions using computational methods have demonstrated their utility, accuracy, and efficiency to identify the interacting partners and therefore complementing experimental efforts to characterize host-pathogen interaction networks.

To predict potential putative HP-PPIs, we use an integrative computational approach based on the combination of multiple OMICS-based methods including human red blood cells (RBC) and Plasmodium falciparum 3D7 strain expressed proteins, domain-domain based PPI, similarity of gene ontology terms, structure similarity method homology identification, and machine learning prediction.

Our results reported a set of 716 protein interactions involving 302 human proteins and 130 Plasmodium proteins.

This work provides a list of potential human-Plasmodium interacting proteins.

These findings will contribute to better understand the mechanisms underlying the molecular determinism of malaria disease and potentially to identify candidate pharmacological targets.