Systems Biology as a Comparative Approach to Understand Complex Gene Expression in Neurological Diseases

Behavioral Sciences

Leticia Diaz-Beltran²  Carlos Cano³  Dennis P. Wall¹ 

[1] Computational Biology Initiative, Harvard Medical School, 250 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA; E-Mail:;Systems Biology Unit, Department of Experimental Biology, University of Jaen, Campus Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaen, 23071, Spain; E-Mail:;Department of Computer Science, University of Granada, Daniel Saucedo Aranda s/n, Granada, 18071, Spain; E-Mail:

关键词: systems biology;    neurological diseases;    gene expression;    autism;    autism spectrum disorders;    network analysis;    protein-protein interactions;    translational bioinformatics;    behavioral diagnosis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/bs3020253

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Systems biology interdisciplinary approaches have become an essential analytical tool that may yield novel and powerful insights about the nature of human health and disease. Complex disorders are known to be caused by the combination of genetic, environmental, immunological or neurological factors. Thus, to understand such disorders, it becomes necessary to address the study of this complexity from a novel perspective. Here, we present a review of integrative approaches that help to understand the underlying biological processes involved in the etiopathogenesis of neurological diseases, for example, those related to autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) endophenotypes. Furthermore, we highlight the role of systems biology in the discovery of new biomarkers or therapeutic targets in complex disorders, a key step in the development of personalized medicine, and we demonstrate the role of systems approaches in the design of classifiers that can shorten the time for behavioral diagnosis of autism.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.