Introduction of inflammatory bowel disease biomarkers panel using protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis

AIM: In the present study, a protein-protein interaction network construction is conducted for IBD. BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel diseases as serious chronic gastrointestinal disorders attracted many molecular investigations. Diverse molecular information is present for IBD. However, these molecular findings are not highlighted based on interactome analysis. On the other hand, PPI network analysis is a powerful method for study of molecular interactions in the protein level that provide useful information for highlighting the desired key proteins. METHODS: Cytoscape is the used software with its plug-ins for detailed analysis. Two centrality parameters including degree and betweenness are determined and the crucial proteins based on these parameters are introduced. RESULTS: The 75 proteins among 100 initial proteins are included in the network of IBD. Seventy-five nodes and 260 edges constructed the network as a scale free network. The findings indicate that there are seven hub-bottleneck proteins in the IBD network. CONCLUSION: More examination revealed the essential roles of these key proteins in the integrity of the network. Finally, the indicator panel including NFKB1, CD40, TNFA, TYK2, NOD2, IL23R, and STAT3 is presented as a possible molecular index for IBD.