A comparative in silico characterization of functional and physicochemical properties of 3FTx (three finger toxin) proteins from four venomous snakes

Snake venom is an abundant resource of diverse pharmacologically bioactive proteins and peptides and a good natural source ofdrug lead compounds and used as important research tools in the field of toxicology, pharmacology and neuroscience. Threefinger toxins (3FTx) is an important super-family of snake venom proteins which has a conserved three finger like appearance inthree dimensional structures. Members of 3FTx family show a wide array of pharmacological effects by targeting differentreceptors and ion channels with high specificity and many of them are being investigated as potential drug target. Therefore, witha vision to verdict a new edge and attempt we determined the amino acid compositional (%) profile, physiochemical properties,secondary structural and functional analysis and phylogenetic relationship of three finger toxins present in four different elapidsnake species namely, Naja naja, Astrotia stokesii, Hydrophis cyanocintus and Pelamis platura using different bioinformatics tools. Fromthe outcome of the current studies, it will be possible to know about a range of biological functions which are responsible mainlyfor the glowing amino acid composition profile of these proteins. Amino acid composition (%) profile although representsdifferential amount of different amino acid residues which encompasses a family precise model but all the protein sequence have aconserved amount of cysteine. The analysis of physicochemical properties can be used as a basic approach to contribute indeveloping rational drug through protein engineering and understanding different physiological function which will be beneficialfor the welfare of human being.