title: A Systematic Analysis of Candidate Genes Associated with Nicotine Addiction.
abstract: Nicotine, as the major psychoactive component of tobacco, has broad physiological effects within the central nervous system, but our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying its neuronal effects remains incomplete. In this study, we performed a systematic analysis on a set of nicotine addiction-related genes to explore their characteristics at network levels. We found that NAGenes tended to have a more moderate degree and weaker clustering coefficient and to be less central in the network compared to alcohol addiction-related genes or cancer genes. Further, clustering of these genes resulted in six clusters with themes in synaptic transmission, signal transduction, metabolic process, and apoptosis, which provided an intuitional view on the major molecular functions of the genes. Moreover, functional enrichment analysis revealed that neurodevelopment, neurotransmission activity, and metabolism related biological processes were involved in nicotine addiction. In summary, by analyzing the overall characteristics of the nicotine addiction related genes, this study provided valuable information for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying nicotine addiction.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, 22 Qixiangtai Road, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, 22 Qixiangtai Road, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, 22 Qixiangtai Road, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, 22 Qixiangtai Road, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Xinhua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, 22 Qixiangtai Road, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Ju
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D006801:Humans; D009538:Nicotine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects*; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D009538:Nicotine