Analysis of diabetic retinopathy biomarker VEGF gene by computational approaches

Diabetic retinopathy, the most common diabetic eye disease, is caused by changes in the blood vessels of the retina which remains the major cause. It is characterized by vascular permeability and increased tissue ischemia and angiogenesis. One of the biomarker for Diabetic retinopathy has been identified as Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor ( VEGF )gene by computational analysis. VEGF is a sub-family of growth factors, the platelet-derived growth factor family of cystine-knot growth factors. They are important signalling proteins involved in both vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, Over expression of VEGF can cause vascular disease in the retina of the eye and other parts of the body. Drugs can inhibit VEGF and control or slowdown those disease. Computational analysis of VEGF with other  genes responsible for diabetic retinopathy were done  by aligning those genes by pair wise and multiple sequence alignments. MSA shows VEGF’s role in diabetic retinopathy and its  related with other genes and proteins responsible for pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. Also  the determination of the promoter and conserved domain of  VEGF gene  help us to identify  its expression levels. Thus molecular docking studies were carried out  to analyse the biomarker VEGF, that helps in treatment of diabetic retinopathy which is proliferative in nature due to uncontrolled angiogenesis.