Deciphering the molecular basis of human cardiovascular disease through network biology
Stephen Y Chan1, Kevin White, Joseph Loscalzo
1Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Insights
Network medicine offers a new approach to understanding complex cardiovascular diseases by analyzing interconnected biological pathways. This framework aids in discovering new genes and improving drug development for personalized therapies.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular research
- Systems biology
- Genomics
Background:
- Cardiovascular diseases arise from complex interactions within multiple pathobiological pathways, not single molecular defects.
- The postgenomic era provides a framework for understanding cellular molecular interactions and their complexity.
- Network approaches are increasingly used to comprehend disease-influencing interconnections.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce fundamental concepts of network medicine.
- Explore the feasibility of network-based methods for cardiovascular disease.
- Assess the potential impact of network medicine on predicting and ameliorating cardiovascular disease.
Main Methods:
- Review of network medicine principles.
- Analysis of network-based approaches in cardiovascular research.
- Exploration of potential applications in disease prediction and therapy.
Main Results:
- Network medicine has yielded discoveries of novel disease genes and pathways.
- It has improved mechanisms for rational drug development.
- Network approaches offer a comprehensive understanding of disease interconnections.
Conclusions:
- Evolving methodologies in network medicine can better capture human pathogenesis complexity.
- Network medicine has the potential to redefine personalized disease classification.
- It may lead to more effective personalized therapies for cardiovascular conditions.
Purpose Of Review:
This review introduces the fundamental concepts of network medicine and explores the feasibility and potential impact of network-based methods on predicting and ameliorating individual manifestations of human cardiovascular disease.
Recent Findings:
Complex cardiovascular diseases rarely result from an abnormality in a single molecular effector, but, rather, nearly always are the net result of multiple pathobiological pathways that interact through an interconnected network. In the postgenomic era, a framework has emerged of the potential complexity of the interacting pathways that govern molecular actions in the human cell. As a result, network approaches have been developed to understand more comprehensively those interconnections that influence human disease. 'Network medicine' has already led to tangible discoveries of novel disease genes and pathways as well as improved mechanisms for rational drug development.
Summary:
As methodologies evolve, network medicine may better capture the complexity of human pathogenesis and, thus, re-define personalized disease classification and therapies.
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