Editors Choice Article | IMPMD: An Integrated Method for Predicting Potential Associations Between miRNAs and Diseases

Journal Name: Current Genomics

Author(s): Meiqi Wu, Yingxi Yang, Hui Wang, Jun Ding, Huan Zhu, Yan Xu*.

 

Graphical Abstract:

 

Abstract:

Background: With the rapid development of biological research, microRNAs (miRNAs) have increasingly attracted worldwide attention. The increasing biological studies and scientific experiments have proven that miRNAs are related to the occurrence and development of a large number of key biological processes which cause complex human diseases. Thus, identifying the association between miRNAs and disease is helpful to diagnose the diseases. Although some studies have found considerable associations between miRNAs and diseases, there are still a lot of associations that need to be identified. Experimental methods to uncover miRNA-disease associations are time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, effective computational methods are urgently needed to predict new associations.

Methodology: In this work, we propose an integrated method for predicting potential associations between miRNAs and diseases (IMPMD). The enhanced similarity for miRNAs is obtained by combination of functional similarity, gaussian similarity and Jaccard similarity. To diseases, it is obtained by combination of semantic similarity, gaussian similarity and Jaccard similarity. Then, we use these two enhanced similarities to construct the features and calculate cumulative score to choose robust features. Finally, the general linear regression is applied to assign weights for Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest Neighbor and Logistic Regression algorithms.

Results: IMPMD obtains AUC of 0.9386 in 10-fold cross-validation, which is better than most of the previous models. To further evaluate our model, we implement IMPMD on two types of case studies for lung cancer and breast cancer. 49 (Lung Cancer) and 50 (Breast Cancer) out of the top 50 related miRNAs are validated by experimental discoveries.

Conclusion: We built a software named IMPMD which can be freely downloaded from https:// github.com/Sunmile/IMPMD.

 

 

 

To read out more, please visit: http://www.eurekaselect.com/176039/article

Editors Choice Article | Mitotherapy as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Mitochondrial Diseases

 

Journal Name: Current Molecular Pharmacology

Author(s): Ailing Fu*

Graphical Abstract:

 

Abstract:

Background: The mitochondrion is a multi-functional organelle that is mainly responsible for energy supply in the mammalian cells. Over 100 human diseases are attributed to mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondrial therapy (mitotherapy) aims to transfer functional exogenous mitochondria into mitochondria-defective cells for recovery of the cell viability and consequently, prevention of the disease progress.

 

Objective: The review summarizes the evidence on exogenous mitochondria that can directly enter mammalian cells for disease therapy following local and intravenous administration, and suggests that when healthy cells donate their mitochondria to damaged cells, the mitochondrial transfer between cells serve as a new mode of cell rescue. Then the transferred mitochondria play their roles in recipient cells, including energy production and maintenance of cell function.

Conclusion: Mitotherapy makes the of modulation of cell survival possible, and it would be a potential therapeutic strategy for mitochondrial diseases.

 

 

 

To read out more, please visit: http://www.eurekaselect.com/175033/article