Abstract:
Neurodegeneration is termed as the loss of structure or function of neurons
that contributes to the death of neurons. Neurological and neuropsychological signs
and symptoms of a particular disease depends upon the site of neurological loss e.g.
the falling of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra is responsible for Parkinson’s
disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a motor neuron disease. These age-dependent
disorders are becoming increasingly prevalent because of the increase in the elderly
population in recent years. Parkinson disease (PD), Alzheimer (AD) and Huntington
(HD) are some major neurodegenerative disorders that comprises a threat to humans.
There is no cure for neurodegeneration as death of brain cells cannot be reversed
nor they can be again generated till now. But one can find a way to stop
more cells from killing themselves. Comparison and identification of differentially
expressed genes found in disorders like PD, AD and HD can lead to the understanding
of common pathway among these disorders. It can also inform about difference of
events occurring in these diseases. As well as a common regulatory network can be
identified. Microarray and Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis is performed
on various datasets found from online resources. Comparative analysis of genes obtain
from these resources identifies ILS6t as a common gene among the various NGS
datasets. Dopaminergic synapse is found to be the most enriched pathway. Systems
Biology analysis reveals several genes to be highly sensitive in this pathway. Any
small dysregulation in these genes effected the synaptic plasticity of neurons, thus
killing the cell. Synaptic plasticity ensures the effective communication among neurons.
Activation of GSK-3 is found to be highly sensitive with synaptic plasticity.
This indicates GSK-3 as one of the potential therapeutic target of neurodegeneration.
