Scientists from the Institute of Biomedical Technologies and Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche have found genes that are related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may also be related to genes related to cancer. The scientists found this using a new computational method and the work was recently published in Frontiers in Genetics.
The scientists searched public databases to find genes that previous studies have associated with ASD. They then used another database listing interactions between different proteins, to narrow down the list of genes and account for interactions between them.
Using a computational technique called network diffusion, the team identified networks of genes that are interrelated through their connection to the ASD genes in the databases. They also investigated if the genes were involved in any known signaling pathways.
They found that some of the genes were involved in brain function and others were involved in conditions that commonly occurred alongside ASD.
The researchers also found genes that were not previously linked to ASD but involved in a large number of protein interactions and signaling pathways. With this data, the researchers put together pathway maps to give more information about ASD and potential targets. From the list of genes in the new networks, they found that a number of them are linked to cancer. This suggests that certain cancer treatments may be effective against ASD as well.
"The computational method we have proposed can be applied to other data-sets to predict new genes involved in other conditions," says Alessandra Mezzelani, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the study. "We hope that global gene databases will continue to grow, allowing scientists to share and reuse these types of data, and we will update our model as more ASD risk genes are discovered," says Ettore Mosca, Ph.D., who was also involved in the study.