Comparison of Differentially Expressed Genes to Identify Potential Targets of Neurodegeneration using Bioinformatics Approach

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.