Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy from a Network Biology Perspective

Background: Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy (PDR) is the advanced version of Diabetic Retinopathy in which, new, fragile blood vessels can start to develop in the retina and into the vitreous, the gel-like fluid that fills the back of the eye.Material and Methods: Here we study PDR from a whole system viewpoint in which network science is utilized for the system representation. Our objective is to explore the role of differentially expressed genes in the development of PDR. For this purpose, we have designed a framework in which the genes with high differential expression are identified and their PPI networks are regenerated. Next, influential dominating nodes are specified in the resulting network. With the enrichment analyses, the output set is validated and its role in the PDR is studied.Results: These results suggest that the output gene set has a significant association with the disease of study. Additionally, we identify miRNAs regulating the transcription of genes inside the explored module as biomarkers affecting the progress of PDR.Keywords: Diabetic Retinopathy; Network; Systems Biology; Differential Gene Expression