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Hanna EM, El Hasbani G, Azar D. Ant colony optimization for the identification of dysregulated gene subnetworks from expression data. BMC Bioinformatics 2024; 25:254. [PMID: 39090538 PMCID: PMC11295523 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-024-05871-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 07/12/2024] [Indexed: 08/04/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND High-throughput experimental technologies can provide deeper insights into pathway perturbations in biomedical studies. Accordingly, their usage is central to the identification of molecular targets and the subsequent development of suitable treatments for various diseases. Classical interpretations of generated data, such as differential gene expression and pathway analyses, disregard interconnections between studied genes when looking for gene-disease associations. Given that these interconnections are central to cellular processes, there has been a recent interest in incorporating them in such studies. The latter allows the detection of gene modules that underlie complex phenotypes in gene interaction networks. Existing methods either impose radius-based restrictions or freely grow modules at the expense of a statistical bias towards large modules. We propose a heuristic method, inspired by Ant Colony Optimization, to apply gene-level scoring and module identification with distance-based search constraints and penalties, rather than radius-based constraints. RESULTS We test and compare our results to other approaches using three datasets of different neurodegenerative diseases, namely Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's, over three independent experiments. We report the outcomes of enrichment analyses and concordance of gene-level scores for each disease. Results indicate that the proposed approach generally shows superior stability in comparison to existing methods. It produces stable and meaningful enrichment results in all three datasets which have different case to control proportions and sample sizes. CONCLUSION The presented network-based gene expression analysis approach successfully identifies dysregulated gene modules associated with a certain disease. Using a heuristic based on Ant Colony Optimization, we perform a distance-based search with no radius constraints. Experimental results support the effectiveness and stability of our method in prioritizing modules of high relevance. Our tool is publicly available at github.com/GhadiElHasbani/ACOxGS.git.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eileen Marie Hanna
- Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon.
| | - Ghadi El Hasbani
- Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon
| | - Danielle Azar
- Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon
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2
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Patil SS, Roberts SA, Gebremedhin AH. Network analysis of driver genes in human cancers. FRONTIERS IN BIOINFORMATICS 2024; 4:1365200. [PMID: 39040139 PMCID: PMC11260686 DOI: 10.3389/fbinf.2024.1365200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2024] [Accepted: 06/14/2024] [Indexed: 07/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Cancer is a heterogeneous disease that results from genetic alteration of cell cycle and proliferation controls. Identifying mutations that drive cancer, understanding cancer type specificities, and delineating how driver mutations interact with each other to establish disease is vital for identifying therapeutic vulnerabilities. Such cancer specific patterns and gene co-occurrences can be identified by studying tumor genome sequences, and networks have proven effective in uncovering relationships between sequences. We present two network-based approaches to identify driver gene patterns among tumor samples. The first approach relies on analysis using the Directed Weighted All Nearest Neighbors (DiWANN) model, which is a variant of sequence similarity network, and the second approach uses bipartite network analysis. A data reduction framework was implemented to extract the minimal relevant information for the sequence similarity network analysis, where a transformed reference sequence is generated for constructing the driver gene network. This data reduction process combined with the efficiency of the DiWANN network model, greatly lowered the computational cost (in terms of execution time and memory usage) of generating the networks enabling us to work at a much larger scale than previously possible. The DiWANN network helped us identify cancer types in which samples were more closely connected to each other suggesting they are less heterogeneous and potentially susceptible to a common drug. The bipartite network analysis provided insight into gene associations and co-occurrences. We identified genes that were broadly mutated in multiple cancer types and mutations exclusive to only a few. Additionally, weighted one-mode gene projections of the bipartite networks revealed a pattern of occurrence of driver genes in different cancers. Our study demonstrates that network-based approaches can be an effective tool in cancer genomics. The analysis identifies co-occurring and exclusive driver genes and mutations for specific cancer types, providing a better understanding of the driver genes that lead to tumor initiation and evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shruti S. Patil
- School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, United States
| | - Steven A. Roberts
- School of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, United States
- Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United States
- UVM’s Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont Cancer Center, Burlington, VT, United States
| | - Assefaw H. Gebremedhin
- School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, United States
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Vicencio E, Nuñez-Belmar J, Cardenas JP, Cortés BI, Martin AJM, Maracaja-Coutinho V, Rojas A, Cafferata EA, González-Osuna L, Vernal R, Cortez C. Transcriptional Signatures and Network-Based Approaches Identified Master Regulators Transcription Factors Involved in Experimental Periodontitis Pathogenesis. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:14835. [PMID: 37834287 PMCID: PMC10573220 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241914835] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Revised: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Periodontitis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the progressive and irreversible destruction of the periodontium. Its aetiopathogenesis lies in the constant challenge of the dysbiotic biofilm, which triggers a deregulated immune response responsible for the disease phenotype. Although the molecular mechanisms underlying periodontitis have been extensively studied, the regulatory mechanisms at the transcriptional level remain unclear. To generate transcriptomic data, we performed RNA shotgun sequencing of the oral mucosa of periodontitis-affected mice. Since genes are not expressed in isolation during pathological processes, we disclose here the complete repertoire of differentially expressed genes (DEG) and co-expressed modules to build Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) and identify the Master Transcriptional Regulators of periodontitis. The transcriptional changes revealed 366 protein-coding genes and 42 non-coding genes differentially expressed and enriched in the immune response. Furthermore, we found 13 co-expression modules with different representation degrees and gene expression levels. Our GRN comprises genes from 12 gene clusters, 166 nodes, of which 33 encode Transcription Factors, and 201 connections. Finally, using these strategies, 26 master regulators of periodontitis were identified. In conclusion, combining the transcriptomic analyses with the regulatory network construction represents a powerful and efficient strategy for identifying potential periodontitis-therapeutic targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emiliano Vicencio
- Escuela de Tecnología Médica, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso 2373223, Chile;
| | - Josefa Nuñez-Belmar
- Centro de Genómica y Bioinformática, Facultad de Ciencias, Ingeniería y Tecnología, Universidad Mayor, Santiago 8580745, Chile; (J.N.-B.); (J.P.C.)
| | - Juan P. Cardenas
- Centro de Genómica y Bioinformática, Facultad de Ciencias, Ingeniería y Tecnología, Universidad Mayor, Santiago 8580745, Chile; (J.N.-B.); (J.P.C.)
- Escuela de Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias, Ingeniería y Tecnología, Universidad Mayor, Santiago 8580745, Chile
| | - Bastian I. Cortés
- Departamento de Biología Celular y Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8331150, Chile
| | - Alberto J. M. Martin
- Laboratorio de Redes Biológicas, Centro Científico y Tecnológico de Excelencia Ciencia & Vida, Fundación Ciencia & Vida, Santiago 7780272, Chile;
- Escuela de Ingeniería, Facultad de Ingeniería, Arquitectura y Diseño, Universidad San Sebastián, Santiago 8420524, Chile
| | - Vinicius Maracaja-Coutinho
- Centro de Modelamiento Molecular, Biofísica y Bioinformática, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8380492, Chile; (V.M.-C.); (A.R.)
- Advanced Center for Chronic Diseases—ACCDiS, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8380492, Chile
| | - Adolfo Rojas
- Centro de Modelamiento Molecular, Biofísica y Bioinformática, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8380492, Chile; (V.M.-C.); (A.R.)
| | - Emilio A. Cafferata
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8380492, Chile; (E.A.C.); (L.G.-O.); (R.V.)
| | - Luis González-Osuna
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8380492, Chile; (E.A.C.); (L.G.-O.); (R.V.)
| | - Rolando Vernal
- Laboratorio de Biología Periodontal, Facultad de Odontología, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8380492, Chile; (E.A.C.); (L.G.-O.); (R.V.)
| | - Cristian Cortez
- Escuela de Tecnología Médica, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso 2373223, Chile;
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Guthrie J, Ko¨stel Bal S, Lombardo SD, Mu¨ller F, Sin C, Hu¨tter CV, Menche J, Boztug K. AutoCore: A network-based definition of the core module of human autoimmunity and autoinflammation. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadg6375. [PMID: 37656781 PMCID: PMC10848965 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg6375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/03/2023]
Abstract
Although research on rare autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases has enabled definition of nonredundant regulators of homeostasis in human immunity, because of the single gene-single disease nature of many of these diseases, contributing factors were mostly unveiled in sequential and noncoordinated individual studies. We used a network-based approach for integrating a set of 186 inborn errors of immunity with predominant autoimmunity/autoinflammation into a comprehensive map of human immune dysregulation, which we termed "AutoCore." The AutoCore is located centrally within the interactome of all protein-protein interactions, connecting and pinpointing multidisease markers for a range of common, polygenic autoimmune/autoinflammatory diseases. The AutoCore can be subdivided into 19 endotypes that correspond to molecularly and phenotypically cohesive disease subgroups, providing a molecular mechanism-based disease classification and rationale toward systematic targeting for therapeutic purposes. Our study provides a proof of concept for using network-based methods to systematically investigate the molecular relationships between individual rare diseases and address a range of conceptual, diagnostic, and therapeutic challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Guthrie
- Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, Zimmermannplatz 10, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Lazarettgasse 14, AKH BT 25.3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- Max Perutz Labs, Vienna BioCenter Campus, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, University of Vienna, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna Austria
| | - Sevgi Ko¨stel Bal
- Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, Zimmermannplatz 10, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Lazarettgasse 14, AKH BT 25.3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI), Zimmermannplatz 10, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Salvo Danilo Lombardo
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Lazarettgasse 14, AKH BT 25.3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- Max Perutz Labs, Vienna BioCenter Campus, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, University of Vienna, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna Austria
| | - Felix Mu¨ller
- Max Perutz Labs, Vienna BioCenter Campus, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, University of Vienna, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna Austria
| | - Celine Sin
- Max Perutz Labs, Vienna BioCenter Campus, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, University of Vienna, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna Austria
| | - Christiane V. R. Hu¨tter
- Max Perutz Labs, Vienna BioCenter Campus, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Vienna BioCenter PhD Program, Doctoral School of the University of Vienna and Medical University of Vienna, Vienna BioCenter, A-1030 Vienna, Austria
| | - Jo¨rg Menche
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Lazarettgasse 14, AKH BT 25.3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- Max Perutz Labs, Vienna BioCenter Campus, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, University of Vienna, Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 9, 1030, Vienna Austria
- Faculty of Mathematics, University of Vienna, Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
| | - Kaan Boztug
- Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, Zimmermannplatz 10, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Lazarettgasse 14, AKH BT 25.3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI), Zimmermannplatz 10, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- St. Anna Children’s Hospital, Kinderspitalgasse 6, A-1090, Vienna, Austria
- Medical University of Vienna, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
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Wu J, Zhang Q, Li G. Identification of cancer-related module in protein-protein interaction network based on gene prioritization. J Bioinform Comput Biol 2021; 20:2150031. [PMID: 34860145 DOI: 10.1142/s0219720021500311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
With the rapid development of deep sequencing technologies, a large amount of high-throughput data has been available for studying the carcinogenic mechanism at the molecular level. It has been widely accepted that the development and progression of cancer are regulated by modules/pathways rather than individual genes. The investigation of identifying cancer-related active modules has received an extensive attention. In this paper, we put forward an identification method ModFinder by integrating both biological networks and gene expression profiles. More concretely, a gene scoring function is devised by using the regression model with [Formula: see text]-step random walk kernel, and the genes are ranked according to both of their active scores and degrees in the PPI network. Then a greedy algorithm NSEA is introduced to find an active module with high score and strong connectivity. Experiments were performed on both simulated data and real biological one, i.e. breast cancer and cervical cancer. Compared with the previous methods SigMod, LEAN and RegMod, ModFinder shows competitive performance. It can successfully identify a well-connected module that contains a large proportion of cancer-related genes, including some well-known oncogenes or tumor suppressors enriched in cancer-related pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingli Wu
- Guangxi Key Lab of Multi-Source Information Mining & Security, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, P. R. China.,Yimeng Executive Leadership Academy, Linyi 276000, P. R. China
| | - Qi Zhang
- College of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, P. R. China
| | - Gaoshi Li
- Guangxi Key Lab of Multi-Source Information Mining & Security, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, P. R. China
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Balomenos P, Dragomir A, Tsakalidis AK, Bezerianos A. Identification of differentially expressed subpathways via a bilevel consensus scoring of network topology and gene expression. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. IEEE ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY. ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2020; 2020:5316-5319. [PMID: 33019184 DOI: 10.1109/embc44109.2020.9176556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Identifying differentially expressed subpathways connected to the emergence of a disease that can be considered as candidates for pharmacological intervention, with minimal off-target effects, is a daunting task. In this direction, we present a bilevel subpathway analysis method to identify differentially expressed subpathways that are connected with an experimental condition, while taking into account potential crosstalks between subpathways which arise due to their connectivity in a combined multi-pathway network. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated on a hematopoietic stem cell aging dataset, with findings corroborated using recent literature.
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John A, Qin B, Kalari KR, Wang L, Yu J. Patient-specific multi-omics models and the application in personalized combination therapy. Future Oncol 2020; 16:1737-1750. [PMID: 32462937 DOI: 10.2217/fon-2020-0119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The rapid advancement of high-throughput technologies and sharp decrease in cost have opened up the possibility to generate large amount of multi-omics data on an individual basis. The development of high-throughput -omics, including genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and microbiomics, enables the application of multi-omics technologies in the clinical settings. Combination therapy, defined as disease treatment with two or more drugs to achieve efficacy with lower doses or lower drug toxicity, is the basis for the care of diseases like cancer. Patient-specific multi-omics data integration can help the identification and development of combination therapies. In this review, we provide an overview of different -omics platforms, and discuss the methods for multi-omics, high-throughput, data integration, personalized combination therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- August John
- Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA
| | - Bo Qin
- Department of Molecular Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.,Gastroenterology Research Unit, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.,Department of Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA
| | - Krishna R Kalari
- Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA
| | - Liewei Wang
- Department of Molecular Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA
| | - Jia Yu
- Department of Molecular Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA
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Singh P, Rai A, Dohare R, Arora S, Ali S, Parveen S, Syed MA. Network-based identification of signature genes KLF6 and SPOCK1 associated with oral submucous fibrosis. Mol Clin Oncol 2020; 12:299-310. [PMID: 32190310 PMCID: PMC7058035 DOI: 10.3892/mco.2020.1991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2019] [Accepted: 10/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The molecular mechanism of oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is yet to be fully elucidated. The identification of reliable signature genes to screen patients with a high risk of OSF and to provide oral cancer surveillance is therefore required. The present study produced a filtering criterion based on network characteristics and principal component analysis, and identified the genes that were involved in OSF prognosis. Two gene expression datasets were analyzed using meta-analysis, the results of which revealed 1,176 biologically significant genes. A co-expression network was subsequently constructed and weighted gene modules were detected. The pathway and functional enrichment analyses of the present study allowed for the identification of modules 1 and 2, and their respective genes, SPARC (osteonectin), cwcv and kazal like domain proteoglycan 1 (SPOCK1) and kruppel like factor 6 (KLF6), which were involved in the occurrence of OSF. The results revealed that both genes had a prominent role in epithelial to mesenchymal transition during OSF progression. The genes identified in the present study require further exploration and validation within clinical settings to determine their roles in OSF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Prithvi Singh
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India
| | - Arpita Rai
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India
- Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India
| | - Ravins Dohare
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India
| | - Shweta Arora
- Translational Research Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India
| | - Sher Ali
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India
| | - Shama Parveen
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Basic Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India
| | - Mansoor Ali Syed
- Translational Research Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, India
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