Motivation Huntington’s disease (HD) may evolve through gene deregulation. However, the impact of gene deregulation on the dynamics of genetic cooperativity in HD remains poorly understood. Here, we built a multi-layer network model of temporal dynamics of genetic cooperativity in the brain of HD knock-in mice (allelic series of Hdh mice). To enhance biological precision and gene prioritization, we integrated three complementary families of source networks, all inferred from the same RNA-seq time series data in Hdh mice, into weighted-edge networks where an edge recapitulates path-length variation across source-networks and age-points. Results Weighted edge networks identify two consecutive waves of tight genetic cooperativity enriched in deregulated genes (critical phases), pre-symptomatically in the cortex, implicating neurotransmission, and symptomatically in the striatum, implicating cell survival (e.g. Hipk4) intertwined with cell proliferation (e.g. Scn4b) and cellular senescence (e.g. Cdkn2a products) responses. Top striatal weighted edges are enriched in modulators of defective behavior in invertebrate models of HD pathogenesis, validating their relevance to neuronal dysfunction in vivo. Collectively, these findings reveal highly dynamic temporal features of genetic cooperativity in the brain of Hdh mice where a 2-step logic highlights the importance of cellular maintenance and senescence in the striatum of symptomatic mice, providing highly prioritized targets. Availability and implementation Weighted edge network analysis (WENA) data and source codes for performing spectral decomposition of the signal (SDS) and WENA analysis, both written using Python, are available at http://www.broca.inserm.fr/HD-WENA/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Network methods are useful for reducing data complexity and modelling biological and pathogenic processes on a system level, thus having strong potential for prioritising testable hypotheses in Huntington’s disease (HD) research. Several types of mathematical formalisms are being used for network analysis of signal variability in HD datasets, each of them shedding particular light on transcriptional codes and network dynamics in HD. We tested for HD sub-graphs that may be consistently highlighted by several of these mathematical formalisms and whether this may be linked to specific features of the HD process and translate into a more selective level of gene prioritisation. We will present data based on integrating two types of HD networks and discuss how network comparison methods may add value to systems modelling in HD.
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