title: Network analysis reveals crosstalk between autophagy genes and disease genes.
abstract: Autophagy is a protective and life-sustaining process in which cytoplasmic components are packaged into double-membrane vesicles and targeted to lysosomes for degradation. Accumulating evidence supports that autophagy is associated with several pathological conditions. However, research on the functional cross-links between autophagy and disease genes remains in its early stages. In this study, we constructed a disease-autophagy network (DAN) by integrating known disease genes, known autophagy genes and protein-protein interactions (PPI). Dissecting the topological properties of the DAN suggested that nodes that both autophagy and disease genes (inter-genes), are topologically important in the DAN structure. Next, a core network from the DAN was extracted to analyze the functional links between disease and autophagy genes. The genes in the core network were significantly enriched in multiple disease-related pathways, suggesting that autophagy genes may function in various disease processes. Of 17 disease classes, 11 significantly overlapped with autophagy genes, including cancer diseases, metabolic diseases and hematological diseases, a finding that is supported by the literatures. We also found that autophagy genes have a bridging role in the connections between pairs of disease classes. Altogether, our study provides a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying human diseases and the autophagy process.
authors.affiliation: The Criminal Science and Technology Department, Zhejiang Police College, 555 Binwen Road, Binjiang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ji-Ye
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Criminal Science and Technology Department, Zhejiang Police College, 555 Binwen Road, Binjiang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei-Xuan
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: The department of gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiao Tong University, 277 Yanta West Road, Yanta District, Xi'an, Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Criminal Science and Technology Department, Zhejiang Police College, 555 Binwen Road, Binjiang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yi-Lei
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: The Criminal Science and Technology Department, Zhejiang Police College, 555 Binwen Road, Binjiang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jian-Bing
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D006801:Humans; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000235:genetics; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps / Q000235:genetics*