Methanol Skin Mucus Extract of Mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala) Fish Peptide Targeting Viral Particles of Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus (IPNV) and Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISAV): an in silico Approach

The teleost fish skin mucus acts as an important physical and biological barrier that prevents fish from the surrounding environment. Many studies reported the presence of various immunological molecules in fish skin mucus that involve in protection against invading microbes. In the present study, the skin mucus proteins of freshwater fish Cirrhinus mrigala (mrigal) were extracted using organic solvent (methanol) and further analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to identify proteins by database retrieval. LC-MS/MS analysis revealed the presence of diverse proteins in the methanol skin mucus extract. The identified proteins were classified into biological process, cellular process and molecular functions by Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. A peptide was selected, modelled and compared with other antimicrobial peptides sequences through phylogenetic analysis and showed that the modelled peptide shared high similarity with Arminin-1 of Cnidaria animals. We also investigated the potentiality of the modelled peptide against Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus sub viral particle and Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus hemagglutinin-esterase protein through protein-peptide docking using ClusPro. The docking results confirmed that the modelled peptide has good interactions with viral particles. Therefore, these results suggest that the modelled peptide molecule from C. mrigala methanol skin mucus extract can be further studied that aid in the development of novel peptide candidate for the control of aquaculture viral diseases.

Automated summary

The study extracted skin mucus proteins from freshwater fish Cirrhinus mrigala and identified diverse proteins through LC-MS/MS analysis. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis was used to classify the proteins based on biological process, cellular process, and molecular functions. The modelling of a peptide from the mucus extract showed potential interactions with viral particles, suggesting a novel peptide candidate for aquaculture viral disease control.