No abstract

Motivation Transcriptomes are routinely used to prioritize genes underlying specific phenotypes. Current approaches largely focus on differentially expressed genes (DEGs), despite the recognition that phenotypes emerge via a network of interactions between genes and proteins, many of which may not be differentially expressed. Furthermore, many practical applications lack sufficient samples or an appropriate control to robustly identify statistically significant DEGs. Results We provide a computational tool - PathExt, which, in contrast to differential genes, identifies differentially active paths when a control is available, and most active paths otherwise, in an omics-integrated biological network. The sub-network comprising such paths, referred to as the TopNet, captures the most relevant genes and processes underlying the specific biological context. The TopNet forms a well-connected graph, reflecting the tight orchestration in biological systems. Two key advantages of PathExt are (i) it can extract characteristic genes and pathways even when only a single sample is available, and (ii) it can be used to study a system even in the absence of an appropriate control. We demonstrate the utility of PathExt via two diverse sets of case studies, to characterize (a) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) response upon exposure to 18 antibacterial drugs where only one transcriptomic sample is available for each exposure; and (b) tissue-relevant genes and processes using transcriptomic data for 39 human tissues. Overall, PathExt is a general tool for prioritizing context-relevant genes in any omics-integrated biological network for any condition(s) of interest, even with a single sample or in the absence of appropriate controls. Availability The source code for PathExt is available at https://github.com/NarmadaSambaturu/PathExt. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

BackgroundIn biological systems, diseases are caused by small perturbations in a complex network of interactions between proteins. Perturbations typically affect only a small number of proteins, which go on to disturb a larger part of the network. To counteract this, a stress-response is launched, resulting in a complex pattern of variations in the cell. Identifying the key players involved in either spreading the perturbation or responding to it can give us important insights.ResultsWe develop an algorithm, EpiTracer, which identifies the key proteins, or epicenters, from which a large number of changes in the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network ripple out. We propose a new centrality measure, ripple centrality, which measures how effectively a change at a particular node can ripple across the network by identifying highest activity paths specific to the condition of interest, obtained by mapping gene expression profiles to the PPI network.We demonstrate the algorithm using an overexpression study and a knockdown study. In the overexpression study, the gene that was overexpressed (PARK2) was highlighted as the most important epicenter specific to the perturbation. The other top-ranked epicenters were involved in either supporting the activity of PARK2, or counteracting it. Also, 5 of the identified epicenters showed no significant differential expression, showing that our method can find information which simple differential expression analysis cannot. In the second dataset (SP1 knockdown), alternative regulators of SP1 targets were highlighted as epicenters. Also, the gene that was knocked down (SP1) was picked up as an epicenter specific to the control condition. Sensitivity analysis showed that the genes identified as epicenters remain largely unaffected by small changes.ConclusionsWe develop an algorithm, EpiTracer, to find epicenters in condition-specific biological networks, given the PPI network and gene expression levels. EpiTracer includes programs which can extract the immediate influence zone of epicenters and provide a summary of dysregulated genes, facilitating quick biological analysis. We demonstrate its efficacy on two datasets with differing characteristics, highlighting its general applicability. We also show that EpiTracer is not sensitive to minor changes in the network. The source code for EpiTracer is provided at Github (https://github.com/narmada26/EpiTracer).

Genetic differences contribute to variations in the immune response mounted by different individuals to a pathogen. Such differential response can influence the spread of infectious disease, indicating why such diseases impact some populations more than others. Here, we study the impact of population-level genetic heterogeneity on the epidemic spread of different strains of H1N1 influenza. For a population with known HLA class-I allele frequency and for a given H1N1 viral strain, we classify individuals into sub-populations according to their level of susceptibility to infection. Our core hypothesis is that the susceptibility of a given individual to a disease such as H1N1 influenza is inversely proportional to the number of high affinity viral epitopes the individual can present. This number can be extracted from the HLA genetic profile of the individual. We use ethnicity-specific HLA class-I allele frequency data, together with genome sequences of various H1N1 viral strains, to obtain susceptibility sub-populations for 61 ethnicities and 81 viral strains isolated in 2009, as well as 85 strains isolated in other years. We incorporate these data into a multi-compartment SIR model to analyse the epidemic dynamics for these (ethnicity, viral strain) epidemic pairs. Our results show that HLA allele profiles which lead to a large spread in individual susceptibility values can act as a protective barrier against the spread of influenza. We predict that populations skewed such that a small number of highly susceptible individuals coexist with a large number of less susceptible ones, should exhibit smaller outbreaks than populations with the same average susceptibility but distributed more uniformly across individuals. Our model tracks some well-known qualitative trends of influenza spread worldwide, suggesting that HLA genetic diversity plays a crucial role in determining the spreading potential of different influenza viral strains across populations.

Most transcriptomic studies of SARS-CoV-2 infection have focused on differentially expressed genes, which do not necessarily reveal the genes mediating the transcriptomic changes. In contrast, exploiting curated biological network, our PathExt tool identifies central genes from the differentially active paths mediating global transcriptomic response. Here we apply PathExt to multiple cell line infection models of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses, as well as to COVID-19 patient-derived PBMCs. The central genes mediating SARS-CoV-2 response in cell lines were uniquely enriched for ATP metabolic process, G1/S transition, leukocyte activation and migration. In contrast, PBMC response reveals dysregulated cell-cycle processes. In PBMC, the most frequently central genes are associated with COVID-19 severity. Importantly, relative to differential genes, PathExt-identified genes show greater concordance with several benchmark anti-COVID-19 target gene sets. We propose six novel anti-SARS-CoV-2 targets ADCY2, ADSL, OCRL, TIAM1, PBK, and BUB1, and potential drugs targeting these genes, such as Bemcentinib, Phthalocyanine, and Conivaptan.