Interactions between metal binding viral proteins and human targets as revealed by network-based bioinformatics

The role of metal ions in virus-host interactions is largely unknown. In the present computational study, the putative zinc, manganese, magnesium, and iron metalloproteomes of 226 different viruses were identified and then the human proteins interacting the viral metalloproteomes were retrieved through network-based bioinformatics. Protein features such as abundance, function and structurally disorder were classified according to the metal type bound to viral proteins. Likely perturbations of host cellular metal homeostasis by viral metal binders are also discussed. Furthermore, possible molecular linkage between the human proteome infected by viral metalloproteins with twelve neurological disorders was examined by in silico gene network analysis.