Prediction of Potential Targets of an Emerging Zoonotic Paramyxovirus: An Integrated Bioinformatics Analysis

Abstract

Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic paramyxovirus that can cause severe respiratory illness and encephalitis in humans, with no effective targets and treatment. To investigate potential targets involved in the progression of NiV infection by bioinformatics studies. To identify the key gene involved in NiV infection, a microarray dataset (GSE32902) was downloaded from the National Centre of Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The differentially expressed genes were unraveled by using Geo2Enrichr and the functional enrichment analysis was identified by using Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID). Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) was used to construct the Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and visualized by using Cytoscape. A total of 500 genes (262 up-regulated and 238 down-regulated) were identified among NiV infected cells. 19 genes were found with a node degree of more than 10. All of them were upregulated genes. MX1, ISG15 and IFIT1 were found to have the highest node degree (degree = 20) followed by RSAD2 and IRF7 with node degree 18 and MX2 and IFIT3 with node degree 17. The above results explicitly demonstrate that the expressed genes attribute to a defensive response against the virus. Henceforth finding agonists for these genes would help in the effective management of Niv infection.