In Silico Identification of Potential American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana) Allergens

Abstract

Background: Cockroaches have been recognized as a powerful indoor allergen. Cockroach allergy can be a major factor in seri­ous asthma and nasal allergy. Bioinformatics tools have been developed to identify potential allergens. The present study was conducted to identify potential allergens in Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus).
Methods: The study focused on the identification of potential allergens among the characterized proteins of P. americana us­ing web-based and publicly available allergen prediction tools that follow the FAO/WHO guidelines for prediction of aller­genic proteins. P. americana protein sequences were retrieved from UniProtKB. The sequences obtained were analyzed us­ing AlgPred. The potential allergens obtained were further analyzed by SDAP for confirmation.
Results: Protein sequences (233 cases) of P. americana were obtained from UniProtKB out of which 25 were known aller­gens. Out of the remaining 208 proteins, 102 potential allergens were predicted by AlgPred. However, only 9 were found to be potential allergens after screening with SDAP. Arginine kinases, RNA polymerase II subunit, parcxpwnx02, peptidyl-pro­lyl cis-trans isomerase, hemocyanin subunit type I and type II, homologue of Sarcophaga proteinase and alpha amylase  were confirmed to be potential allergens by SDAP.
Conclusion: We have identified nine potential allergens in P. americana that may be used as preliminary support for further labo­ratory experiments.