Identification of Shared Pathways Among Immune Related Diseases Utilizing Active Subnetworks

Abstract

Different, but related diseases often contain shared symptoms indicating the presence of possible overlaps in underlying pathogenic mechanisms. The identification of the shared pathways and related factors across these diseases helps to better understand the causes of these diseases, to prevent and treat these diseases. In this study, using immune-related diseases, we proposed a new method on how to compare the development mechanisms of related diseases based on biological pathways. Following the developments in genomic technologies, the genotyping gets cheaper and easier, and hence genome-wide association studies (GWAS) emerged. By this means, via studying big-sized case-control groups for a specific disease, potential genetic variations, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) could he identified. With the help of these studies, in which around a million of SNPs are scanned, the variations and genes that could have a role in specific disease development could be detected. In this study, via using available GWAS datasets and human protein-protein interaction network, and via detecting active subnetworks and affected pathways, seven immune related diseases are analyzed. Via investigating the similarities among the identified pathways for related diseases, we aim to define the underlying pathogenic mechanisms, and hence to contribute to the elucidation of disease development mechanisms and to the drug repositioning studies.