Abstract:
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is one of the most common occurring inflamma-
tory arthritis. The immune system attack the synovial joints and result in significant
cause of morbidity and mortality. Severe pain, swelling, joint damage, disability and
eventually destruction and loss of the joint function are caused. It is a type of au-
toimmune disease which is highly dependent on the environmental factors and the
surroundings. The aforementioned reasons along with the pathological complexities
have been a purpose of unavailability of a cure so far. The major reason of this
study was to identify the therapeutic targets that are the reason behind prolonged
inflammation and causing of autoimmunity which eventually results in RA. Hence,
a comparative analysis of Microarray and RNA Sequencing data was performed to
attain the differentially expressed genes (DEGS) in the diseased patients of RA. Path-
way analysis of the DEGs was performed and the common pathways were analyzed.
The genes involved in those pathways were cross checked with the results of the
comparative analysis of Microarray and RNA Sequencing and hence it was found
out that Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 (EEF2) which is a significant gene for per-
forming translation in the central dogma, was down regulated in the diseased patients.
Irregular translation is known as a significant cause of inflammation. The presence of
Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 Kinase (EEF2K) was also found in the diseased pa-
tient, which is actually a gene that cause the phosphorylation of EEF2 leading towards
its dysfunction and eventually an irregular process of translation. Hence, EEF2K was
subjected as a therapeutic target for further analysis. Protein, with the accession ID
of 7SHQ, for the gene EEF2K was attained from PDB and was prepared for docking
with the ligands. 178 FDA approved drugs were gathered from Drug Bank and docked
with the protein to check their interactions. AZD-5672, Isoquinoline, Amelubant, Ri-
macalib and Fosdagrocorat showed the best binding affinity with the protein after
docking.
