Extensive In Silico Analysis of the Functional and Structural Consequences of SNPs in Human ARX Gene

Abstract

Early infantile epileptic encephalopathy 1 (EIEE1) is a rare but devastating neurologic disorder that displays concomitant cognitive and motor impairment, and is often presented in the first months of life with severe intellectual disability. The objective of this study is to classify the most deleterious nsSNPs in ARX gene that may cause EIEE1 disease. Despite the reported association of ARX gene mutations with vulnerability to several neurologic condition, there is lack of in silico analysis on the functional and structural impacts of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the ARX at protein level. Therefore, the pathogenic nsSNPs in the human ARX obtained from NCBI were analyzed for their functional and structural impact using bioinformatics tools like SIFT, Polyphen, PROVEAN, I-Mutant, and MUPro. The effects of the mutations on tertiary structure of the human ARX protein were predicted using RaptorX and visualized by UCSF Chimera while STRING was used to investigate its protein-protein interaction. Our extensive in silico analysis revealed 11 mutations that will significantly alter the structure of human ARX protein; that may disturb the domain which will affect the function of the protein. Extensive in silico analysis of the functional and structural consequences of SNPs in human ARX gene revealed 11 mutations (L535Q, R528S, R380L, V374D, L343Q, T333N, T333S, R332H, R330H, G34R and L33P) that may cause EIEE1.Therefore, can be used as diagnostic markers for EIEE1.