TY - JOUR
T1 - An in-silico approach to studying a very rare neurodegenerative disease using a disease with higher prevalence with shared pathways and genes
T2 - Cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy and Alzheimer’s disease
AU - Shim, Yu Jeong
AU - Shin, Min Kyoung
AU - Jung, Junghyun
AU - Koo, Bongseong
AU - Jang, Wonhee
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Shim, Shin, Jung, Koo and Jang.
PY - 2022/9/27
Y1 - 2022/9/27
N2 - Cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (cALD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease characterized by inflammatory demyelination in the central nervous system. Another neurodegenerative disease with a high prevalence, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), shares many common features with cALD such as cognitive impairment and the alleviation of symptoms by erucic acid. We investigated cALD and AD in parallel to study the shared pathological pathways between a rare disease and a more common disease. The approach may expand the biological understandings and reveal novel therapeutic targets. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) were conducted to identify both the resemblance in gene expression patterns and genes that are pathologically relevant in the two diseases. Within differentially expressed genes (DEGs), GSEA identified 266 common genes with similar up- or down-regulation patterns in cALD and AD. Among the interconnected genes in AD data, two gene sets containing 1,486 genes preserved in cALD data were selected by WGCNA that may significantly affect the development and progression of cALD. WGCNA results filtered by functional correlation via protein–protein interaction analysis overlapping with GSEA revealed four genes (annexin A5, beta-2-microglobulin, CD44 molecule, and fibroblast growth factor 2) that showed robust associations with the pathogeneses of cALD and AD, where they were highly involved in inflammation, apoptosis, and the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. This study provided an integrated strategy to provide new insights into a rare disease with scant publicly available data (cALD) using a more prevalent disorder with some pathological association (AD), which suggests novel druggable targets and drug candidates.
AB - Cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (cALD) is a rare neurodegenerative disease characterized by inflammatory demyelination in the central nervous system. Another neurodegenerative disease with a high prevalence, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), shares many common features with cALD such as cognitive impairment and the alleviation of symptoms by erucic acid. We investigated cALD and AD in parallel to study the shared pathological pathways between a rare disease and a more common disease. The approach may expand the biological understandings and reveal novel therapeutic targets. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) were conducted to identify both the resemblance in gene expression patterns and genes that are pathologically relevant in the two diseases. Within differentially expressed genes (DEGs), GSEA identified 266 common genes with similar up- or down-regulation patterns in cALD and AD. Among the interconnected genes in AD data, two gene sets containing 1,486 genes preserved in cALD data were selected by WGCNA that may significantly affect the development and progression of cALD. WGCNA results filtered by functional correlation via protein–protein interaction analysis overlapping with GSEA revealed four genes (annexin A5, beta-2-microglobulin, CD44 molecule, and fibroblast growth factor 2) that showed robust associations with the pathogeneses of cALD and AD, where they were highly involved in inflammation, apoptosis, and the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. This study provided an integrated strategy to provide new insights into a rare disease with scant publicly available data (cALD) using a more prevalent disorder with some pathological association (AD), which suggests novel druggable targets and drug candidates.
KW - adrenoleukodystrophy
KW - Alzheimer’s disease
KW - meta-analysis
KW - neurodegenerative disease
KW - shared pathway
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140001892&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fnmol.2022.996698
DO - 10.3389/fnmol.2022.996698
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85140001892
SN - 1662-5099
VL - 15
JO - Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience
JF - Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience
M1 - 996698
ER -