1
|
Bajic VP, Salhi A, Lakota K, Radovanovic A, Razali R, Zivkovic L, Spremo-Potparevic B, Uludag M, Tifratene F, Motwalli O, Marchand B, Bajic VB, Gojobori T, Isenovic ER, Essack M. DES-Amyloidoses “Amyloidoses through the looking-glass”: A knowledgebase developed for exploring and linking information related to human amyloid-related diseases. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0271737. [PMID: 35877764 PMCID: PMC9312389 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
More than 30 types of amyloids are linked to close to 50 diseases in humans, the most prominent being Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is brain-related local amyloidosis, while another amyloidosis, such as AA amyloidosis, tends to be more systemic. Therefore, we need to know more about the biological entities’ influencing these amyloidosis processes. However, there is currently no support system developed specifically to handle this extraordinarily complex and demanding task. To acquire a systematic view of amyloidosis and how this may be relevant to the brain and other organs, we needed a means to explore "amyloid network systems" that may underly processes that leads to an amyloid-related disease. In this regard, we developed the DES-Amyloidoses knowledgebase (KB) to obtain fast and relevant information regarding the biological network related to amyloid proteins/peptides and amyloid-related diseases. This KB contains information obtained through text and data mining of available scientific literature and other public repositories. The information compiled into the DES-Amyloidoses system based on 19 topic-specific dictionaries resulted in 796,409 associations between terms from these dictionaries. Users can explore this information through various options, including enriched concepts, enriched pairs, and semantic similarity. We show the usefulness of the KB using an example focused on inflammasome-amyloid associations. To our knowledge, this is the only KB dedicated to human amyloid-related diseases derived primarily through literature text mining and complemented by data mining that provides a novel way of exploring information relevant to amyloidoses.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Vladan P. Bajic
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences “VINCA", Laboratory for Radiobiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
- * E-mail: (ME); (VPB)
| | - Adil Salhi
- Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Katja Lakota
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Aleksandar Radovanovic
- Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Rozaimi Razali
- Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Lada Zivkovic
- Department of Physiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | | | - Mahmut Uludag
- Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Faroug Tifratene
- Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Olaa Motwalli
- Saudi Electronic University (SEU), College of Computing and Informatics, Madinah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | | | - Vladimir B. Bajic
- Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Takashi Gojobori
- Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering Division (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Esma R. Isenovic
- Institute of Nuclear Sciences “VINCA", Laboratory for Radiobiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
| | - Magbubah Essack
- Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- * E-mail: (ME); (VPB)
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
AlSaieedi A, Salhi A, Tifratene F, Raies AB, Hungler A, Uludag M, Van Neste C, Bajic VB, Gojobori T, Essack M. DES-Tcell is a knowledgebase for exploring immunology-related literature. Sci Rep 2021; 11:14344. [PMID: 34253812 PMCID: PMC8275784 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93809-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
T-cells are a subtype of white blood cells circulating throughout the body, searching for infected and abnormal cells. They have multifaceted functions that include scanning for and directly killing cells infected with intracellular pathogens, eradicating abnormal cells, orchestrating immune response by activating and helping other immune cells, memorizing encountered pathogens, and providing long-lasting protection upon recurrent infections. However, T-cells are also involved in immune responses that result in organ transplant rejection, autoimmune diseases, and some allergic diseases. To support T-cell research, we developed the DES-Tcell knowledgebase (KB). This KB incorporates text- and data-mined information that can expedite retrieval and exploration of T-cell relevant information from the large volume of published T-cell-related research. This KB enables exploration of data through concepts from 15 topic-specific dictionaries, including immunology-related genes, mutations, pathogens, and pathways. We developed three case studies using DES-Tcell, one of which validates effective retrieval of known associations by DES-Tcell. The second and third case studies focuses on concepts that are common to Grave’s disease (GD) and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT). Several reports have shown that up to 20% of GD patients treated with antithyroid medication develop HT, thus suggesting a possible conversion or shift from GD to HT disease. DES-Tcell found miR-4442 links to both GD and HT, and that miR-4442 possibly targets the autoimmune disease risk factor CD6, which provides potential new knowledge derived through the use of DES-Tcell. According to our understanding, DES-Tcell is the first KB dedicated to exploring T-cell-relevant information via literature-mining, data-mining, and topic-specific dictionaries.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ahdab AlSaieedi
- Department of Medical Laboratory Technology (MLT), Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences (FAMS), King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, 21589-80324, Saudi Arabia
| | - Adil Salhi
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Faroug Tifratene
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Arwa Bin Raies
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Arnaud Hungler
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mahmut Uludag
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Christophe Van Neste
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Vladimir B Bajic
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Takashi Gojobori
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Magbubah Essack
- Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
DES-ROD: Exploring Literature to Develop New Links between RNA Oxidation and Human Diseases. OXIDATIVE MEDICINE AND CELLULAR LONGEVITY 2020; 2020:5904315. [PMID: 32308806 PMCID: PMC7142358 DOI: 10.1155/2020/5904315] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2020] [Accepted: 02/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Normal cellular physiology and biochemical processes require undamaged RNA molecules. However, RNAs are frequently subjected to oxidative damage. Overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leads to RNA oxidation and disturbs redox (oxidation-reduction reaction) homeostasis. When oxidation damage affects RNA carrying protein-coding information, this may result in the synthesis of aberrant proteins as well as a lower efficiency of translation. Both of these, as well as imbalanced redox homeostasis, may lead to numerous human diseases. The number of studies on the effects of RNA oxidative damage in mammals is increasing by year due to the understanding that this oxidation fundamentally leads to numerous human diseases. To enable researchers in this field to explore information relevant to RNA oxidation and effects on human diseases, we developed DES-ROD, an online knowledgebase that contains processed information from 298,603 relevant documents that consist of PubMed abstracts and PubMed Central full-text articles. The system utilizes concepts/terms from 38 curated thematic dictionaries mapped to the analyzed documents. Researchers can explore enriched concepts, as well as enriched pairs of putatively associated concepts. In this way, one can explore mutual relationships between any combinations of two concepts from used dictionaries. Dictionaries cover a wide range of biomedical topics, such as human genes and proteins, pathways, Gene Ontology categories, mutations, noncoding RNAs, enzymes, toxins, metabolites, and diseases. This makes insights into different facets of the effects of RNA oxidation and the control of this process possible. The usefulness of the DES-ROD system is demonstrated by case studies on some known information, as well as potentially novel information involving RNA oxidation and diseases. DES-ROD is the first knowledgebase based on text and data mining that focused on the exploration of RNA oxidation and human diseases.
Collapse
|
4
|
Obradovic M, Essack M, Zafirovic S, Sudar‐Milovanovic E, Bajic VP, Van Neste C, Trpkovic A, Stanimirovic J, Bajic VB, Isenovic ER. Redox control of vascular biology. Biofactors 2020; 46:246-262. [PMID: 31483915 PMCID: PMC7187163 DOI: 10.1002/biof.1559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2019] [Accepted: 08/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Redox control is lost when the antioxidant defense system cannot remove abnormally high concentrations of signaling molecules, such as reactive oxygen species (ROS). Chronically elevated levels of ROS cause oxidative stress that may eventually lead to cancer and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we focus on redox effects in the vascular system. We pay close attention to the subcompartments of the vascular system (endothelium, smooth muscle cell layer) and give an overview of how redox changes influence those different compartments. We also review the core aspects of redox biology, cardiovascular physiology, and pathophysiology. Moreover, the topic-specific knowledgebase DES-RedoxVasc was used to develop two case studies, one focused on endothelial cells and the other on the vascular smooth muscle cells, as a starting point to possibly extend our knowledge of redox control in vascular biology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Milan Obradovic
- Laboratory of Radiobiology and Molecular GeneticsVinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of BelgradeBelgradeSerbia
| | - Magbubah Essack
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE)ThuwalKingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Sonja Zafirovic
- Laboratory of Radiobiology and Molecular GeneticsVinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of BelgradeBelgradeSerbia
| | - Emina Sudar‐Milovanovic
- Laboratory of Radiobiology and Molecular GeneticsVinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of BelgradeBelgradeSerbia
| | - Vladan P. Bajic
- Laboratory of Radiobiology and Molecular GeneticsVinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of BelgradeBelgradeSerbia
| | - Christophe Van Neste
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE)ThuwalKingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Andreja Trpkovic
- Laboratory of Radiobiology and Molecular GeneticsVinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of BelgradeBelgradeSerbia
| | - Julijana Stanimirovic
- Laboratory of Radiobiology and Molecular GeneticsVinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of BelgradeBelgradeSerbia
| | - Vladimir B. Bajic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE)ThuwalKingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Esma R. Isenovic
- Laboratory of Radiobiology and Molecular GeneticsVinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, University of BelgradeBelgradeSerbia
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Essack M, Salhi A, Stanimirovic J, Tifratene F, Bin Raies A, Hungler A, Uludag M, Van Neste C, Trpkovic A, Bajic VP, Bajic VB, Isenovic ER. Literature-Based Enrichment Insights into Redox Control of Vascular Biology. OXIDATIVE MEDICINE AND CELLULAR LONGEVITY 2019; 2019:1769437. [PMID: 31223421 PMCID: PMC6542245 DOI: 10.1155/2019/1769437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2019] [Revised: 04/11/2019] [Accepted: 05/02/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
In cellular physiology and signaling, reactive oxygen species (ROS) play one of the most critical roles. ROS overproduction leads to cellular oxidative stress. This may lead to an irrecoverable imbalance of redox (oxidation-reduction reaction) function that deregulates redox homeostasis, which itself could lead to several diseases including neurodegenerative disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancers. In this study, we focus on the redox effects related to vascular systems in mammals. To support research in this domain, we developed an online knowledge base, DES-RedoxVasc, which enables exploration of information contained in the biomedical scientific literature. The DES-RedoxVasc system analyzed 233399 documents consisting of PubMed abstracts and PubMed Central full-text articles related to different aspects of redox biology in vascular systems. It allows researchers to explore enriched concepts from 28 curated thematic dictionaries, as well as literature-derived potential associations of pairs of such enriched concepts, where associations themselves are statistically enriched. For example, the system allows exploration of associations of pathways, diseases, mutations, genes/proteins, miRNAs, long ncRNAs, toxins, drugs, biological processes, molecular functions, etc. that allow for insights about different aspects of redox effects and control of processes related to the vascular system. Moreover, we deliver case studies about some existing or possibly novel knowledge regarding redox of vascular biology demonstrating the usefulness of DES-RedoxVasc. DES-RedoxVasc is the first compiled knowledge base using text mining for the exploration of this topic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Magbubah Essack
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Computational Bioscience Research Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Adil Salhi
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Computational Bioscience Research Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Julijana Stanimirovic
- Vinca Institute, University of Belgrade, Laboratory for Molecular Endocrinology and Radiobiology, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Faroug Tifratene
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Computational Bioscience Research Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Arwa Bin Raies
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Computational Bioscience Research Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Arnaud Hungler
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Computational Bioscience Research Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mahmut Uludag
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Computational Bioscience Research Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Christophe Van Neste
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Computational Bioscience Research Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Andreja Trpkovic
- Vinca Institute, University of Belgrade, Laboratory for Molecular Endocrinology and Radiobiology, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Vladan P. Bajic
- Vinca Institute, University of Belgrade, Laboratory for Molecular Endocrinology and Radiobiology, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Vladimir B. Bajic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Computational Bioscience Research Center, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
| | - Esma R. Isenovic
- Vinca Institute, University of Belgrade, Laboratory for Molecular Endocrinology and Radiobiology, Belgrade, Serbia
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Kordopati V, Salhi A, Razali R, Radovanovic A, Tifratene F, Uludag M, Li Y, Bokhari A, AlSaieedi A, Bin Raies A, Van Neste C, Essack M, Bajic VB. DES-Mutation: System for Exploring Links of Mutations and Diseases. Sci Rep 2018; 8:13359. [PMID: 30190574 PMCID: PMC6127254 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-31439-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2017] [Accepted: 08/17/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
During cellular division DNA replicates and this process is the basis for passing genetic information to the next generation. However, the DNA copy process sometimes produces a copy that is not perfect, that is, one with mutations. The collection of all such mutations in the DNA copy of an organism makes it unique and determines the organism’s phenotype. However, mutations are often the cause of diseases. Thus, it is useful to have the capability to explore links between mutations and disease. We approached this problem by analyzing a vast amount of published information linking mutations to disease states. Based on such information, we developed the DES-Mutation knowledgebase which allows for exploration of not only mutation-disease links, but also links between mutations and concepts from 27 topic-specific dictionaries such as human genes/proteins, toxins, pathogens, etc. This allows for a more detailed insight into mutation-disease links and context. On a sample of 600 mutation-disease associations predicted and curated, our system achieves precision of 72.83%. To demonstrate the utility of DES-Mutation, we provide case studies related to known or potentially novel information involving disease mutations. To our knowledge, this is the first mutation-disease knowledgebase dedicated to the exploration of this topic through text-mining and data-mining of different mutation types and their associations with terms from multiple thematic dictionaries.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Vasiliki Kordopati
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Adil Salhi
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Rozaimi Razali
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Aleksandar Radovanovic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Faroug Tifratene
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mahmut Uludag
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Yu Li
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ameerah Bokhari
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahdab AlSaieedi
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.,King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences (FAMS), Department of Medical Laboratory Technology (MLT), Jeddah, 21589-80324, Saudi Arabia
| | - Arwa Bin Raies
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Christophe Van Neste
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.,Ghent University, Center for Medical Genetics Ghent (CMGG), B-9000, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Magbubah Essack
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Vladimir B Bajic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Salhi A, Negrão S, Essack M, Morton MJL, Bougouffa S, Razali R, Radovanovic A, Marchand B, Kulmanov M, Hoehndorf R, Tester M, Bajic VB. DES-TOMATO: A Knowledge Exploration System Focused On Tomato Species. Sci Rep 2017; 7:5968. [PMID: 28729549 PMCID: PMC5519719 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05448-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2017] [Accepted: 05/25/2017] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Tomato is the most economically important horticultural crop used as a model to study plant biology and particularly fruit development. Knowledge obtained from tomato research initiated improvements in tomato and, being transferrable to other such economically important crops, has led to a surge of tomato-related research and published literature. We developed DES-TOMATO knowledgebase (KB) for exploration of information related to tomato. Information exploration is enabled through terms from 26 dictionaries and combination of these terms. To illustrate the utility of DES-TOMATO, we provide several examples how one can efficiently use this KB to retrieve known or potentially novel information. DES-TOMATO is free for academic and nonprofit users and can be accessed at http://cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/des_tomato/, using any of the mainstream web browsers, including Firefox, Safari and Chrome.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Adil Salhi
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Sónia Negrão
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Magbubah Essack
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mitchell J L Morton
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Salim Bougouffa
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Rozaimi Razali
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Aleksandar Radovanovic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | | | - Maxat Kulmanov
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Robert Hoehndorf
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Mark Tester
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia
| | - Vladimir B Bajic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering Division (CEMSE), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Salhi A, Essack M, Alam T, Bajic VP, Ma L, Radovanovic A, Marchand B, Schmeier S, Zhang Z, Bajic VB. DES-ncRNA: A knowledgebase for exploring information about human micro and long noncoding RNAs based on literature-mining. RNA Biol 2017; 14:963-971. [PMID: 28387604 PMCID: PMC5546543 DOI: 10.1080/15476286.2017.1312243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2017] [Revised: 02/23/2017] [Accepted: 03/24/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), particularly microRNAs (miRNAs) and long ncRNAs (lncRNAs), are important players in diseases and emerge as novel drug targets. Thus, unraveling the relationships between ncRNAs and other biomedical entities in cells are critical for better understanding ncRNA roles that may eventually help develop their use in medicine. To support ncRNA research and facilitate retrieval of relevant information regarding miRNAs and lncRNAs from the plethora of published ncRNA-related research, we developed DES-ncRNA ( www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/des_ncrna ). DES-ncRNA is a knowledgebase containing text- and data-mined information from public scientific literature and other public resources. Exploration of mined information is enabled through terms and pairs of terms from 19 topic-specific dictionaries including, for example, antibiotics, toxins, drugs, enzymes, mutations, pathways, human genes and proteins, drug indications and side effects, mutations, diseases, etc. DES-ncRNA contains approximately 878,000 associations of terms from these dictionaries of which 36,222 (5,373) are with regards to miRNAs (lncRNAs). We provide several ways to explore information regarding ncRNAs to users including controlled generation of association networks as well as hypotheses generation. We show an example how DES-ncRNA can aid research on Alzheimer disease and suggest potential therapeutic role for Fasudil. DES-ncRNA is a powerful tool that can be used on its own or as a complement to the existing resources, to support research in human ncRNA. To our knowledge, this is the only knowledgebase dedicated to human miRNAs and lncRNAs derived primarily through literature-mining enabling exploration of a broad spectrum of associated biomedical entities, not paralleled by any other resource.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Adil Salhi
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Magbubah Essack
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Tanvir Alam
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Vladan P. Bajic
- VINCA Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
| | - Lina Ma
- BIG Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
| | - Aleksandar Radovanovic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | | | - Sebastian Schmeier
- Massey University Auckland, Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Zhang Zhang
- BIG Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Vladimir B. Bajic
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Sagar S, Kaur M, Radovanovic A, Bajic VB. Dragon exploration system on marine sponge compounds interactions. J Cheminform 2013; 5:11. [PMID: 23415072 PMCID: PMC3608955 DOI: 10.1186/1758-2946-5-11] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2012] [Accepted: 02/14/2013] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Natural products are considered a rich source of new chemical structures that may lead to the therapeutic agents in all major disease areas. About 50% of the drugs introduced in the market in the last 20 years were natural products/derivatives or natural products mimics, which clearly shows the influence of natural products in drug discovery. Results In an effort to further support the research in this field, we have developed an integrative knowledge base on Marine Sponge Compounds Interactions (Dragon Exploration System on Marine Sponge Compounds Interactions - DESMSCI) as a web resource. This knowledge base provides information about the associations of the sponge compounds with different biological concepts such as human genes or proteins, diseases, as well as pathways, based on the literature information available in PubMed and information deposited in several other databases. As such, DESMSCI is aimed as a research support resource for problems on the utilization of marine sponge compounds. DESMSCI allows visualization of relationships between different chemical compounds and biological concepts through textual and tabular views, graphs and relational networks. In addition, DESMSCI has built in hypotheses discovery module that generates potentially new/interesting associations among different biomedical concepts. We also present a case study derived from the hypotheses generated by DESMSCI which provides a possible novel mode of action for variolins in Alzheimer’s disease. Conclusion DESMSCI is the first publicly available (http://www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/desmsci) comprehensive resource where users can explore information, compiled by text- and data-mining approaches, on biological and chemical data related to sponge compounds.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sunil Sagar
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Computational Bioscience Research center, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
10
|
Kulakovskiy IV, Medvedeva YA, Schaefer U, Kasianov AS, Vorontsov IE, Bajic VB, Makeev VJ. HOCOMOCO: a comprehensive collection of human transcription factor binding sites models. Nucleic Acids Res 2012; 41:D195-202. [PMID: 23175603 PMCID: PMC3531053 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gks1089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 156] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Transcription factor (TF) binding site (TFBS) models are crucial for computational reconstruction of transcription regulatory networks. In existing repositories, a TF often has several models (also called binding profiles or motifs), obtained from different experimental data. Having a single TFBS model for a TF is more pragmatic for practical applications. We show that integration of TFBS data from various types of experiments into a single model typically results in the improved model quality probably due to partial correction of source specific technique bias. We present the Homo sapiens comprehensive model collection (HOCOMOCO, http://autosome.ru/HOCOMOCO/, http://cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/hocomoco/) containing carefully hand-curated TFBS models constructed by integration of binding sequences obtained by both low- and high-throughput methods. To construct position weight matrices to represent these TFBS models, we used ChIPMunk software in four computational modes, including newly developed periodic positional prior mode associated with DNA helix pitch. We selected only one TFBS model per TF, unless there was a clear experimental evidence for two rather distinct TFBS models. We assigned a quality rating to each model. HOCOMOCO contains 426 systematically curated TFBS models for 401 human TFs, where 172 models are based on more than one data source.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ivan V Kulakovskiy
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilov Street 32, Moscow 119991, GSP-1, Russia.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
11
|
Cui X, Wang Q, Yin W, Xu H, Wilson ZA, Wei C, Pan S, Zhang D. PMRD: a curated database for genes and mutants involved in plant male reproduction. BMC PLANT BIOLOGY 2012; 12:215. [PMID: 23153247 PMCID: PMC3607949 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2229-12-215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2012] [Accepted: 11/07/2012] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Male reproduction is an essential biological event in the plant life cycle separating the diploid sporophyte and haploid gametophyte generations, which involves expression of approximately 20,000 genes. The control of male reproduction is also of economic importance for plant breeding and hybrid seed production. With the advent of forward and reverse genetics and genomic technologies, a large number of male reproduction-related genes have been identified. Thus it is extremely challenging for individual researchers to systematically collect, and continually update, all the available information on genes and mutants related to plant male reproduction. The aim of this study is to manually curate such gene and mutant information and provide a web-accessible resource to facilitate the effective study of plant male reproduction. DESCRIPTION Plant Male Reproduction Database (PMRD) is a comprehensive resource for browsing and retrieving knowledge on genes and mutants related to plant male reproduction. It is based upon literature and biological databases and includes 506 male sterile genes and 484 mutants with defects of male reproduction from a variety of plant species. Based on Gene Ontology (GO) annotations and literature, information relating to a further 3697 male reproduction related genes were systematically collected and included, and using in text curation, gene expression and phenotypic information were captured from the literature. PMRD provides a web interface which allows users to easily access the curated annotations and genomic information, including full names, symbols, locations, sequences, expression patterns, functions of genes, mutant phenotypes, male sterile categories, and corresponding publications. PMRD also provides mini tools to search and browse expression patterns of genes in microarray datasets, run BLAST searches, convert gene ID and generate gene networks. In addition, a Mediawiki engine and a forum have been integrated within the database, allowing users to share their knowledge, make comments and discuss topics. CONCLUSION PMRD provides an integrated link between genetic studies and the rapidly growing genomic information. As such this database provides a global view of plant male reproduction and thus aids advances in this important area.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Cui
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Qiudao Wang
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, 221116, China
| | - Wenzhe Yin
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Huayong Xu
- Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Zoe A Wilson
- School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Loughborough, Leicestershire, Nottingham, LE12 5RD, UK
| | - Chaochun Wei
- Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Shenyuan Pan
- School of Life Sciences, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, 221116, China
| | - Dabing Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
DESTAF: a database of text-mined associations for reproductive toxins potentially affecting human fertility. Reprod Toxicol 2011; 33:99-105. [PMID: 22198179 DOI: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2011.12.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2011] [Revised: 11/14/2011] [Accepted: 12/09/2011] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The Dragon Exploration System for Toxicants and Fertility (DESTAF) is a publicly available resource which enables researchers to efficiently explore both known and potentially novel information and associations in the field of reproductive toxicology. To create DESTAF we used data from the literature (including over 10500 PubMed abstracts), several publicly available biomedical repositories, and specialized, curated dictionaries. DESTAF has an interface designed to facilitate rapid assessment of the key associations between relevant concepts, allowing for a more in-depth exploration of information based on different gene/protein-, enzyme/metabolite-, toxin/chemical-, disease- or anatomically centric perspectives. As a special feature, DESTAF allows for the creation and initial testing of potentially new association hypotheses that suggest links between biological entities identified through the database. DESTAF, along with a PDF manual, can be found at http://cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/destaf. It is free to academic and non-commercial users and will be updated quarterly.
Collapse
|
13
|
Abstract
Systems biology is all about networks. A recent trend has been to associate systems biology exclusively with the study of gene regulatory or protein-interaction networks. However, systems biology approaches can be applied at many other scales, from the subatomic to the ecosystem scales. In this review, we describe studies at the sub-cellular, tissue, whole plant and crop scales and highlight how these studies can be related to systems biology. We discuss the properties of system approaches at each scale as well as their current limits, and pinpoint in each case advances unique to the considered scale but representing potential for the other scales. We conclude by examining plant models bridging different scales and considering the future prospects of plant systems biology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mikaël Lucas
- Centre for Plant Integrative Biology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
14
|
Kwofie SK, Radovanovic A, Sundararajan VS, Maqungo M, Christoffels A, Bajic VB. Dragon exploratory system on hepatitis C virus (DESHCV). INFECTION GENETICS AND EVOLUTION 2010; 11:734-9. [PMID: 21194573 DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2010.12.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2010] [Revised: 11/30/2010] [Accepted: 12/08/2010] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Even though hepatitis C virus (HCV) cDNA was characterized about 20 years ago, there is insufficient understanding of the molecular etiology underlying HCV infections. Current global rates of infection and its increasingly chronic character are causes of concern for health policy experts. Vast amount of data accumulated from biochemical, genomic, proteomic, and other biological analyses allows for novel insights into the HCV viral structure, life cycle and functions of its proteins. Biomedical text-mining is a useful approach for analyzing the increasing corpus of published scientific literature on HCV. We report here the first comprehensive HCV customized biomedical text-mining based online web resource, dragon exploratory system on hepatitis C virus (DESHCV), a biomedical text-mining and relationship exploring knowledge base was developed by exploring literature on HCV. The pre-compiled dictionaries existing in the dragon exploratory system (DES) were enriched with biomedical concepts pertaining to HCV proteins, their name variants and symbols to make it suitable for targeted information exploration and knowledge extraction as focused on HCV. A list of 32,895 abstracts retrieved via PubMed database using specific keywords searches related to HCV were processed based on concept recognition of terms from several dictionaries. The web query interface enables retrieval of information using specified concepts, keywords and phrases, generating text-derived association networks and hypotheses, which could be tested to identify potentially novel relationship between different concepts. Such an approach could also augment efforts in the search for diagnostic or even therapeutic targets. DESHCV thus represents online literature-based discovery resource freely accessible for academic and non-profit users via http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/DESHCV/ and its mirror site http://cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/deshcv/.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Samuel K Kwofie
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
15
|
Maqungo M, Kaur M, Kwofie SK, Radovanovic A, Schaefer U, Schmeier S, Oppon E, Christoffels A, Bajic VB. DDPC: Dragon Database of Genes associated with Prostate Cancer. Nucleic Acids Res 2010; 39:D980-5. [PMID: 20880996 PMCID: PMC3013759 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkq849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men. PC is relatively difficult to diagnose due to a lack of clear early symptoms. Extensive research of PC has led to the availability of a large amount of data on PC. Several hundred genes are implicated in different stages of PC, which may help in developing diagnostic methods or even cures. In spite of this accumulated information, effective diagnostics and treatments remain evasive. We have developed Dragon Database of Genes associated with Prostate Cancer (DDPC) as an integrated knowledgebase of genes experimentally verified as implicated in PC. DDPC is distinctive from other databases in that (i) it provides pre-compiled biomedical text-mining information on PC, which otherwise require tedious computational analyses, (ii) it integrates data on molecular interactions, pathways, gene ontologies, gene regulation at molecular level, predicted transcription factor binding sites on promoters of PC implicated genes and transcription factors that correspond to these binding sites and (iii) it contains DrugBank data on drugs associated with PC. We believe this resource will serve as a source of useful information for research on PC. DDPC is freely accessible for academic and non-profit users via http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/ddpc/ and http://cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/ddpc/.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Monique Maqungo
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag-X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
16
|
Tiffin N, Meintjes A, Ramesar R, Bajic VB, Rayner B. Computational analysis of candidate disease genes and variants for salt-sensitive hypertension in indigenous Southern Africans. PLoS One 2010; 5:e12989. [PMID: 20886000 PMCID: PMC2946338 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2010] [Accepted: 08/29/2010] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Multiple factors underlie susceptibility to essential hypertension, including a significant genetic and ethnic component, and environmental effects. Blood pressure response of hypertensive individuals to salt is heterogeneous, but salt sensitivity appears more prevalent in people of indigenous African origin. The underlying genetics of salt-sensitive hypertension, however, are poorly understood. In this study, computational methods including text- and data-mining have been used to select and prioritize candidate aetiological genes for salt-sensitive hypertension. Additionally, we have compared allele frequencies and copy number variation for single nucleotide polymorphisms in candidate genes between indigenous Southern African and Caucasian populations, with the aim of identifying candidate genes with significant variability between the population groups: identifying genetic variability between population groups can exploit ethnic differences in disease prevalence to aid with prioritisation of good candidate genes. Our top-ranking candidate genes include parathyroid hormone precursor (PTH) and type-1angiotensin II receptor (AGTR1). We propose that the candidate genes identified in this study warrant further investigation as potential aetiological genes for salt-sensitive hypertension.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nicki Tiffin
- Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, University of Cape Town/Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa.
| | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
17
|
Zhang L, Berleant D, Ding J, Cao T, Syrkin Wurtele E. PathBinder--text empirics and automatic extraction of biomolecular interactions. BMC Bioinformatics 2009; 10 Suppl 11:S18. [PMID: 19811683 PMCID: PMC3226189 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2105-10-s11-s18] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Motivation The increasingly large amount of free, online biological text makes automatic interaction extraction correspondingly attractive. Machine learning is one strategy that works by uncovering and using useful properties that are implicit in the text. However these properties are usually not reported in the literature explicitly. By investigating specific properties of biological text passages in this paper, we aim to facilitate an alternative strategy, the use of text empirics, to support mining of biomedical texts for biomolecular interactions. We report on our application of this approach, and also report some empirical findings about an important class of passages. These may be useful to others who may also wish to use the empirical properties we describe. Results We manually analyzed syntactic and semantic properties of sentences likely to describe interactions between biomolecules. The resulting empirical data were used to design an algorithm for the PathBinder system to extract biomolecular interactions from texts. PathBinder searches PubMed for sentences describing interactions between two given biomolecules. PathBinder then uses probabilistic methods to combine evidence from multiple relevant sentences in PubMed to assess the relative likelihood of interaction between two arbitrary biomolecules. A biomolecular interaction network was constructed based on those likelihoods. Conclusion The text empirics approach used here supports computationally friendly, performance competitive, automatic extraction of biomolecular interactions from texts. Availability http://www.metnetdb.org/pathbinder.
Collapse
|
18
|
Essack M, Radovanovic A, Schaefer U, Schmeier S, Seshadri SV, Christoffels A, Kaur M, Bajic VB. DDEC: Dragon database of genes implicated in esophageal cancer. BMC Cancer 2009; 9:219. [PMID: 19580656 PMCID: PMC2711974 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-9-219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2008] [Accepted: 07/06/2009] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Esophageal cancer ranks eighth in order of cancer occurrence. Its lethality primarily stems from inability to detect the disease during the early organ-confined stage and the lack of effective therapies for advanced-stage disease. Moreover, the understanding of molecular processes involved in esophageal cancer is not complete, hampering the development of efficient diagnostics and therapy. Efforts made by the scientific community to improve the survival rate of esophageal cancer have resulted in a wealth of scattered information that is difficult to find and not easily amendable to data-mining. To reduce this gap and to complement available cancer related bioinformatic resources, we have developed a comprehensive database (Dragon Database of Genes Implicated in Esophageal Cancer) with esophageal cancer related information, as an integrated knowledge database aimed at representing a gateway to esophageal cancer related data. DESCRIPTION Manually curated 529 genes differentially expressed in EC are contained in the database. We extracted and analyzed the promoter regions of these genes and complemented gene-related information with transcription factors that potentially control them. We further, precompiled text-mined and data-mined reports about each of these genes to allow for easy exploration of information about associations of EC-implicated genes with other human genes and proteins, metabolites and enzymes, toxins, chemicals with pharmacological effects, disease concepts and human anatomy. The resulting database, DDEC, has a useful feature to display potential associations that are rarely reported and thus difficult to identify. Moreover, DDEC enables inspection of potentially new 'association hypotheses' generated based on the precompiled reports. CONCLUSION We hope that this resource will serve as a useful complement to the existing public resources and as a good starting point for researchers and physicians interested in EC genetics. DDEC is freely accessible to academic and non-profit users at http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/ddec/. DDEC will be updated twice a year.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Magbubah Essack
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
19
|
Krallinger M, Rodriguez-Penagos C, Tendulkar A, Valencia A. PLAN2L: a web tool for integrated text mining and literature-based bioentity relation extraction. Nucleic Acids Res 2009; 37:W160-5. [PMID: 19520768 PMCID: PMC2703909 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkp484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
There is an increasing interest in using literature mining techniques to complement information extracted from annotation databases or generated by bioinformatics applications. Here we present PLAN2L, a web-based online search system that integrates text mining and information extraction techniques to access systematically information useful for analyzing genetic, cellular and molecular aspects of the plant model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Our system facilitates a more efficient retrieval of information relevant to heterogeneous biological topics, from implications in biological relationships at the level of protein interactions and gene regulation, to sub-cellular locations of gene products and associations to cellular and developmental processes, i.e. cell cycle, flowering, root, leaf and seed development. Beyond single entities, also predefined pairs of entities can be provided as queries for which literature-derived relations together with textual evidences are returned. PLAN2L does not require registration and is freely accessible at http://zope.bioinfo.cnio.es/plan2l.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin Krallinger
- Structural Biology and Biocomputing programme, Spanish National Cancer Center (CNIO), Melchor Fernandez Almagro 3, Madrid, 28029, Spain.
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
20
|
Kaur M, Radovanovic A, Essack M, Schaefer U, Maqungo M, Kibler T, Schmeier S, Christoffels A, Narasimhan K, Choolani M, Bajic VB. Database for exploration of functional context of genes implicated in ovarian cancer. Nucleic Acids Res 2009; 37:D820-3. [PMID: 18790805 PMCID: PMC2686485 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkn593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2008] [Revised: 09/02/2008] [Accepted: 09/03/2008] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Ovarian cancer (OC) is becoming the most common gynecological cancer in developed countries and the most lethal gynecological malignancy. It is also the fifth leading cause of all cancer-related deaths in women. The identification of diagnostic biomarkers and development of early detection techniques for OC largely depends on the understanding of the complex functionality and regulation of genes involved in this disease. Unfortunately, information about these OC genes is scattered throughout the literature and various databases making extraction of relevant functional information a complex task. To reduce this problem, we have developed a database dedicated to OC genes to support exploration of functional characterization and analysis of biological processes related to OC. The database contains general information about OC genes, enriched with the results of transcription regulation sequence analysis and with relevant text mining to provide insights into associations of the OC genes with other genes, metabolites, pathways and nuclear proteins. Overall, it enables exploration of relevant information for OC genes from multiple angles, making it a unique resource for OC and will serve as a useful complement to the existing public resources for those interested in OC genetics. Access is free for academic and non-profit users and database can be accessed at http://apps.sanbi.ac.za/ddoc/.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mandeep Kaur
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Aleksandar Radovanovic
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Magbubah Essack
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Ulf Schaefer
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Monique Maqungo
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Tracey Kibler
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Sebastian Schmeier
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Alan Christoffels
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Kothandaraman Narasimhan
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Mahesh Choolani
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| | - Vladimir B. Bajic
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, National University Health System, Singapore
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Sagar S, Kaur M, Dawe A, Seshadri SV, Christoffels A, Schaefer U, Radovanovic A, Bajic VB. DDESC: Dragon database for exploration of sodium channels in human. BMC Genomics 2008; 9:622. [PMID: 19099596 PMCID: PMC2631582 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-9-622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2008] [Accepted: 12/20/2008] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Sodium channels are heteromultimeric, integral membrane proteins that belong to a superfamily of ion channels. The mutations in genes encoding for sodium channel proteins have been linked with several inherited genetic disorders such as febrile epilepsy, Brugada syndrome, ventricular fibrillation, long QT syndrome, or channelopathy associated insensitivity to pain. In spite of these significant effects that sodium channel proteins/genes could have on human health, there is no publicly available resource focused on sodium channels that would support exploration of the sodium channel related information. Results We report here Dragon Database for Exploration of Sodium Channels in Human (DDESC), which provides comprehensive information related to sodium channels regarding different entities, such as "genes and proteins", "metabolites and enzymes", "toxins", "chemicals with pharmacological effects", "disease concepts", "human anatomy", "pathways and pathway reactions" and their potential links. DDESC is compiled based on text- and data-mining. It allows users to explore potential associations between different entities related to sodium channels in human, as well as to automatically generate novel hypotheses. Conclusion DDESC is first publicly available resource where the information related to sodium channels in human can be explored at different levels. This database is freely accessible for academic and non-profit users via the worldwide web .
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sunil Sagar
- South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag- X17, Modderdam Road, Bellville, Cape Town 7535, South Africa.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
22
|
van Baarlen P, van Esse HP, Siezen RJ, Thomma BPHJ. Challenges in plant cellular pathway reconstruction based on gene expression profiling. TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2008; 13:44-50. [PMID: 18155635 DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2007.11.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2007] [Revised: 10/22/2007] [Accepted: 11/01/2007] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Microarrays are used to profile transcriptional activity, providing global cell biology insight. Particularly for plants, interpretation of transcriptional profiles is challenging because many genes have unknown functions. Furthermore, many plant gene sequences do not have clear homologs in other model organisms. Fortunately, over the past five years, various tools that assist plant scientists have been developed. Here, we evaluate the currently available in silico tools for reconstruction of cellular (metabolic, biochemical and signal transduction) pathways based on plant gene expression datasets. Furthermore, we show how expression-profile comparison at the level of these various cellular pathways contributes to the postulation of novel hypotheses which, after experimental verification, can provide further insight into decisive elements that have roles in cellular processes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Peter van Baarlen
- Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, UMC Radboud University, Geert Grooteplein 26-28, 6525 GA Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
23
|
|
24
|
Bhalla R, Narasimhan K, Swarup S. Metabolomics and its role in understanding cellular responses in plants. PLANT CELL REPORTS 2005; 24:562-71. [PMID: 16220342 DOI: 10.1007/s00299-005-0054-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2005] [Revised: 07/22/2005] [Accepted: 07/25/2005] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
A natural shift is taking place in the approaches being adopted by plant scientists in response to the accessibility of systems-based technology platforms. Metabolomics is one such field, which involves a comprehensive non-biased analysis of metabolites in a given cell at a specific time. This review briefly introduces the emerging field and a range of analytical techniques that are most useful in metabolomics when combined with computational approaches in data analyses. Using cases from Arabidopsis and other selected plant systems, this review highlights how information can be integrated from metabolomics and other functional genomics platforms to obtain a global picture of plant cellular responses. We discuss how metabolomics is enabling large-scale and parallel interrogation of cell states under different stages of development and defined environmental conditions to uncover novel interactions among various pathways. Finally, we discuss selected applications of metabolomics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ritu Bhalla
- Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Malaysia
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
25
|
Sumner LW, Urbanczyk-Wochniak E, Broeckling CD. Metabolomics data analysis, visualization, and integration. Methods Mol Biol 2005; 406:409-36. [PMID: 18287705 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-59745-535-0_20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
Metabolomics is the large-scale analysis of metabolites and as such requires bioinformatics tools for data analysis, visualization, and integration. This chapter describes the basic composition of chromatographically coupled mass spectrometry (MS) data sets used in metabolomics and describes in detail the steps necessary for extracting large-scale qualitative and quantitative information. This process involves noise filtering, peak picking and deconvolution, peak identification, peak alignment, and the creation of a final data matrix for statistical processing. Multivariate tools for comparative analysis are presented and illustrated using data for Medicago truncatula. Additional tools for visualizing and integrating metabolomics data within a biological context are discussed. Two tables are provided listing current metabolomics data processing and visualization software. Because metabolomics is rapidly maturing, a final section is presented concerning the need for data standardization and current efforts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lloyd W Sumner
- The Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation, Plant Biology Division, Ardmore, OK, USA
| | | | | |
Collapse
|