piRDisease v1.0: a manually curated database for piRNA associated diseases

Area of Science:

• Molecular Biology
• Genomics
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are crucial regulatory molecules with emerging roles in diverse diseases.
• Understanding piRNA involvement in disease diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response is of significant clinical importance.
• The rapid increase in piRNA research necessitates a centralized, curated data resource.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a comprehensive database, piRDisease, cataloging experimentally supported piRNA-disease associations.
• To curate and homogenize complex, heterogeneous data on piRNA identifiers and reference genomes.
• To provide a user-friendly platform for accessing detailed piRNA-disease information.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of over 2500 articles using keywords like 'PIWI-interacting RNAs' and 'piRNAs'.
• Manual curation and data homogenization to address complexities in piRNA IDs and reference genome versions.
• Development of the piRDisease database (v1.0) to store curated associations.

Main Results:

• The piRDisease database contains 7,939 manually curated associations between 4,796 piRNAs and 28 diseases.
• All included associations are experimentally supported.
• The database provides detailed information including experimental evidence, descriptions, sequences, and locations for each piRNA-disease link.

Conclusions:

• piRDisease is a novel, comprehensive resource for piRNA-disease associations, facilitating research in molecular biology and disease.
• The database supports the growing understanding of piRNAs' roles in disease diagnosis and treatment.
• A submission portal is available for researchers to contribute updates, ensuring the database remains current.