title: Construction and analysis of the protein-protein interaction network related to essential hypertension.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Essential hypertension (EH) is a complex disease as a consequence of interaction between environmental factors and genetic background, but the pathogenesis of EH remains elusive. The emerging tools of network medicine offer a platform to explore a complex disease at system level. In this study, we aimed to identify the key proteins and the biological regulatory pathways involving in EH and further to explore the molecular connectivities between these pathways by the topological analysis of the Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The extended network including one giant network consisted of 535 nodes connected via 2572 edges and two separated small networks. 27 proteins with high BC and 28 proteins with large degree have been identified. NOS3 with highest BC and Closeness centrality located in the centre of the network. The backbone network derived from high BC proteins presents a clear and visual overview which shows all important regulatory pathways for blood pressure (BP) and the crosstalk between them. Finally, the robustness of NOS3 as central protein and accuracy of backbone were validated by 287 test networks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our finding suggests that blood pressure variation is orchestrated by an integrated PPI network centered on NOS3.
authors.affiliation: Basic Medicine School, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.
authors.forename: Jihua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ran
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jianfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yanchao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Xiumei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hongming
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiaofang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Huiwu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D056726:Genetic Association Studies / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D052250:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III / Q000378:metabolism*; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: C496314:NOS3 protein, human; D052250:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III