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Introduction
Pro-thrombotic events are one of the prevalent causes of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions among COVID-19 patients, although the signaling events in the stimulated platelets are still unclear.
Methods
We conducted a comparative analysis of platelet transcriptome data from healthy donors, ICU, and non-ICU COVID-19 patients to elucidate these mechanisms. To surpass previous analyses, we constructed models of involved networks and control cascades by integrating a global human signaling network with transcriptome data. We investigated the control of platelet hyperactivation and the specific proteins involved.
Results
Our study revealed that control of the platelet network in ICU patients is significantly higher than in non-ICU patients. Non-ICU patients require control over fewer proteins for managing platelet hyperactivity compared to ICU patients. Identification of indispensable proteins highlighted key subnetworks, that are targetable for system control in COVID-19-related platelet hyperactivity. We scrutinized FDA-approved drugs targeting indispensable proteins and identified fostamatinib as a potent candidate for preventing thrombosis in COVID-19 patients.
Discussion
Our findings shed light on how SARS-CoV-2 efficiently affects host platelets by targeting indispensable and critical proteins involved in the control of platelet activity. We evaluated several drugs for specific control of platelet hyperactivity in ICU patients suffering from platelet hyperactivation. The focus of our approach is repurposing existing drugs for optimal control over the signaling network responsible for platelet hyperactivity in COVID-19 patients. Our study offers specific pharmacological recommendations, with drug prioritization tailored to the distinct network states observed in each patient condition. Interactive networks and detailed results can be accessed at https://fostamatinib.bioinfo-wuerz.eu/.
Candida auris is a globally emerging fungal pathogen responsible for causing nosocomial outbreaks in healthcare associated settings. It is known to cause infection in all age groups and exhibits multi-drug resistance with high potential for horizontal transmission. Because of this reason combined with limited therapeutic choices available, C. auris infection has been acknowledged as a potential risk for causing a future pandemic, and thus seeking a promising strategy for its treatment is imperative. Here, we combined evolutionary information with reverse vaccinology approach to identify novel epitopes for vaccine design that could elicit CD4+ T-cell responses against C. auris. To this end, we extensively scanned the family of proteins encoded by C. auris genome. In addition, a pathogen may acquire substitutions in epitopes over a period of time which could cause its escape from the immune response thus rendering the vaccine ineffective. To lower this possibility in our design, we eliminated all rapidly evolving genes of C. auris with positive selection. We further employed highly conserved regions of multiple C. auris strains and identified two immunogenic and antigenic T-cell epitopes that could generate the most effective immune response against C. auris. The antigenicity scores of our predicted vaccine candidates were calculated as 0.85 and 1.88 where 0.5 is the threshold for prediction of fungal antigenic sequences. Based on our results, we conclude that our vaccine candidates have the potential to be successfully employed for the treatment of C. auris infection. However, in vivo experiments are imperative to further demonstrate the efficacy of our design.
Comparison of the central human and mouse platelet signaling cascade by systems biological analysis
(2020)
Background
Understanding the molecular mechanisms of platelet activation and aggregation is of high interest for basic and clinical hemostasis and thrombosis research. The central platelet protein interaction network is involved in major responses to exogenous factors. This is defined by systemsbiological pathway analysis as the central regulating signaling cascade of platelets (CC).
Results
The CC is systematically compared here between mouse and human and major differences were found. Genetic differences were analysed comparing orthologous human and mouse genes. We next analyzed different expression levels of mRNAs. Considering 4 mouse and 7 human high-quality proteome data sets, we identified then those major mRNA expression differences (81%) which were supported by proteome data. CC is conserved regarding genetic completeness, but we observed major differences in mRNA and protein levels between both species. Looking at central interactors, human PLCB2, MMP9, BDNF, ITPR3 and SLC25A6 (always Entrez notation) show absence in all murine datasets. CC interactors GNG12, PRKCE and ADCY9 occur only in mice. Looking at the common proteins, TLN1, CALM3, PRKCB, APP, SOD2 and TIMP1 are higher abundant in human, whereas RASGRP2, ITGB2, MYL9, EIF4EBP1, ADAM17, ARRB2, CD9 and ZYX are higher abundant in mouse. Pivotal kinase SRC shows different regulation on mRNA and protein level as well as ADP receptor P2RY12.
Conclusions
Our results highlight species-specific differences in platelet signaling and points of specific fine-tuning in human platelets as well as murine-specific signaling differences.
Lung cancer is currently the leading cause of cancer related mortality due to late diagnosis and limited treatment intervention. Non-coding RNAs are not translated into proteins and have emerged as fundamental regulators of gene expression. Recent studies reported that microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs are involved in lung cancer development and progression. Moreover, they appear as new promising non-invasive biomarkers for early lung cancer diagnosis. Here, we highlight their potential as biomarker in lung cancer and present how bioinformatics can contribute to the development of non-invasive diagnostic tools. For this, we discuss several bioinformatics algorithms and software tools for a comprehensive understanding and functional characterization of microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs.