A systems biological study on the comorbidity of autism spectrum disorders and bipolar disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a “spectrum” of disorders, characterized by varying degrees of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Among Psychiatric disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders have the strongest evidence for a genetic basis, yet the search for specific genes contributing to these often devastating developmental syndromes has proven extraordinarily difficult. Bipolar Disorder (BP) is a manic-depressive disorder whose symptoms are characterized by extremities in moods. It is also called as the “Mood disorder”. BP, like, ASD also has a strong genetic basis and identification of the candidate genes still remains an ongoing effort. Literature studies point to the hypothesis that ASD and BP have good chances of comorbidity and that they may share common pathways for their manifestation. But this hypothesis has not been worked on in depth. Thus, the study focuses on identifying the chances of their comorbidity by identifying their common pathways and the genes involved in the pathways and also discuss the degree of chances of their comorbidity based on the genes involved in the common pathways. Networks for the genes are also constructed to represent their commonness or uniqueness for the disorders.