A Comprehensive Phylogenetic and Bioinformatics Assessment of Hydrophobin Protein (HYPAI) for Drug Delivery: an In Silico Analysis

Nowadays, efforts are being made to reduce the side effects of drugs, increase the effectiveness of drugs on the target tissue, etc. using drug delivery knowledge to control the bioavailability of drugs in the human body. Hydrophobin is a low molecular weight hydrophobic fungal protein that can potentially be used as nanocarrier in drug delivery systems. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the hydrophobin of Trichoderma, Cladosporium, Verticillium and Sphaerulina species are closely related to animal hydrophobin. The evolutionary relationship of hydrophobin protein was investigated. The physiological and physicochemical properties of the HYPAI were studied by ProtScale and ProtParam servers. Post-translational modifications and three-dimensional structure of HYPAI were studied using CBS and Phyre(2) servers, respectively. Protein-protein interactions were investigated using the platform of Search Tool for Retrieval of Interacting Genes and proteins (STRING). The results indicated that HYPAI is a highly hydrophobic, water soluble protein. The prediction of post-translational modification showed that this protein lacks a suitable site for glycosylation and mannosylation, but there was a possibility of phosphorylation in 8 sites. Physicochemical properties demonstrated that HYPAI is a stable protein with a half-life of 30 h in mammalian reticulocytes in vitro. In silico analysis of the interaction of HYPAI showed that no interaction has been reported for this protein in humans yet. The bioinformatics results have shown that HYPAI is a stable protein in vitro and has no immune effect in the human body, so that can pass through defense mechanisms of the human body with no immunogenicity reaction. Trichoderma spp., especially T. atroviride, due to its usage in agriculture and industries, can be a suitable candidate as a natural, reliable and safe bioreactor for the production of a cost-effective hydrophobin protein, and is being proposed for application in drug research as a new drug nanocarrier.