Phylogenetic Analysis of Dengue Virus Strains Targeting Non-Structural Protein 5 for Evolutionary Insights in Healthcare Informatics

Dengue fever is a viral infection caused by Dengue virus (DENV). Recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in the number of dengue cases, with 10 10-fold increase in cases within 19 years since 2000 as per WHO. The constant mutation of the virus reduces the existing drug (NITD-640) efficiency and can cause drug resistance in the DENV-3 virus. From the survey, it was evident that very few studies have been conducted to study the mutation of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) protein of the DENV-3 virus. The protein RdRp plays a vital role in the survival and multiplication of the virus inside the host. Studying evolutionary relationships through phylogenetic trees helps to design more effective treatment and diagnostic measures against the DENV-3 virus. In the present study, RdRp was selected as a target protein to determine the relationship between DENV-3 strains and find effective drugs against DENV-3 virus. A total of 05 FASTA sequences of RdRp protein isolated from different DENV-3 serotypes were collected and the BLASTp analysis of the individual sequences was conducted to obtain 40 protein sequences similar to input sequences. Conserved regions of similarity were analyzed after performing the phylogenetic studies of 45 sequences by 04 methods and validated with bootstrapping technique (100). The results indicated that sequence 6XD1_A was similar to sequence 6XD0_A (Standard). Further, the 3D structure of the protein with GMQE and QSQE of 0.86 and 0.82 respectively, was developed using the SwissModel tool. Further validation of the model revealed that 89.5% residues were present in the most favored regions and the MolProbity and Verify3D results indicated well-folded protein. Our findings revealed a novel structural similarity between protein 6XD0_A and 6XD1_A, suggesting that the drugs available for 6XD0_A can be repurposed for 6XD1_A. This novel approach can be extended to future mutations in the RdRp protein and accelerate antiviral drug discovery.