Immune system and zinc are associated with recurrent aphthous stomatitis. An assessment using a network-based approach

Resumen

The aim of this research was to identify genes, proteins and processes from the biomedical information published on recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) using network-based foci. Methods: The clinical context was defined using MeSH terms for RAS and biomarkers, combined with words associated with risk. A set of protein coding genes was prioritized using the Génie web server and classified with PANTHER. For defining biologically relevant proteins, protein-protein interaction networks were constructed using Reactome database and Cytoscape. Top 20 proteins were then subjected to functional enrichment using STRING. Results: From 1,075,576 gene-abstract links, 1,491 genes were prioritized. Proteins were related to signaling molecule proteins (n=221), receptor proteins (n=221) and nucleic acid binding proteins (n=169). The network constructed with these proteins included 3,963 nodes and functional analysis showed that main processes involved immune system and zinc ion binding function.