Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Keywords
Conjunctival Melanoma, Genetics, Structural Analysis, Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, Targeted Therapies, Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase (MAPK), Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and Protein Kinase B (Pi3k-akt), Proto-oncogene B-raf (BRAF), Neuroblastoma V-ras Oncogene Homolog (NRAS), Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (C-kit), Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), Phosphate and Tensin Homolog (PTEN)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12101625
Abstract
In recent years, there has been tremendous enthusiasm with respect to detailing the genetic basis of many neoplasms, including conjunctival melanoma (CM). We aim to analyze five proteins associated with CM, namely BRAF, NRAS, c-KIT, NF1, and PTEN. We evaluated each protein for its intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDPRs) and its protein-protein interactions (PPI) with the Predictor of Natural Disordered Protein Regions (PONDR®) and the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING®). Our PONDR® analysis found high levels of IDPRs in all five proteins with mutations linked to CM. The highest levels of IDPRs were in BRAF (45.95%), followed by PTEN (31.76%), NF1 (22.19%), c-KIT (21.82%), and NRAS (14.81%). Our STRING analysis found that each of these five proteins had more predicted interactions then expected (p-value < 1.0 × 10−16). Our analysis demonstrates that the mutations linked to CM likely affected IDPRs and possibly altered their highly complex PPIs. Quantifying IDPRs in BRAF, NRAS, c-KIT, NF1, and PTEN and understanding these protein regions are important processes as IDPRs can be possible drug targets for novel targeted therapies for treating CM.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Genes, v. 12, issue 10, art. 1625
Scholar Commons Citation
Djulbegovic, Mak B.; Uversky, Vladimir N.; Harbour, J. William; Galor, Anat; and Karp, Carol L., "Structural Protein Analysis of Driver Gene Mutations in Conjunctival Melanoma" (2021). Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications. 914.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/mme_facpub/914
