Mycobacterium leprae and
Mycobacterium lepromatosis are gram-positive bacterial pathogens and the causative agents of
leprosy in
humans across the world. The elimination of
leprosy cannot be achieved by multidrug
therapy alone, and highlights the need for new tools and
drugs to prevent the emergence of new resistant
strains .
Methods In this study, our contribution includes the prediction of
vaccine targets and new putative
drugs against
leprosy , using reverse
vaccinology and subtractive
genomics . Six
strains of
Mycobacterium leprae and
Mycobacterium lepromatosis (4 and 2
strains , respectively) were used for comparison taking
Mycobacterium leprae strain TN as the reference
genome . Briefly, we used a combined reverse
vaccinology and subtractive
genomics approach. Results As a result, we identified 12 common putative antigenic
proteins as
vaccine targets and three common
drug targets against
Mycobacterium leprae and
Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Furthermore, the docking
analysis using 28 natural compounds with three
drug targets was done. Conclusions The bis-
naphthoquinone compound Diospyrin (CID 308140) obtained from indigenous
plant Diospyros spp. showed the most favored binding affinity against predicted
drug targets, which can be a candidate
therapeutic target in the
future against
leprosy .(AU)