Publication

Abstract : The design of artificial gene regulatory networks has paved way for the construction of therapeutic gene circuits that would find application in next generation gene therapy approaches. The main challenge in such designs is in selecting the appropriate genetic components to make up the circuit in order to produce the anticipated or desired behavior. To eliminate this complexity, computational simulation tools are used to guide circuit design. This involves selection and genetic modification of components, until the required system behavior is achieved. In this work, we have designed a model for a synthetic nanogene network. The gene expression involved in diseases caused by mutation, like cancer, Alzheimer's disease (AD), etc., can be effectively controlled by Nanogene silencing genetic switch. Here, we have considered the case of Alzheimer's disease. Genes that are responsible for genetic AD are APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2. Antimutagenic study of phytochemicals has been carried out with the common AD causing APP gene mutation. By our computational analysis, phytochemicals like curcumin, eugenol, and limonene have been identified as molecular switch devices to prevent mutation of AD gene. All these chemicals are found to be strongly interacted with the AD gene without making changes to the remaining part of the sequence. Among the analyzed chemicals, curcumin is found to be most interacting with AD gene protecting it from mutation. Hence, inclusion of curcumin-containing food items in our menu would prevent Alzheimer's disease to a large extent. This technique is a type of gene therapy leading to silencing of the mutated part of the gene and preventing mutation. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company.