NTU Undergraduates' research April 2014 - Biosciences | Page 20

SYSTEMS BIOLOGY OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
JAMES A. LONGMATE

Abstract. In recent years, Alzheimer’s disease has become an increasingly important
area of research, as the numbers of those effected increase exponentially, new and
innovative approaches are being applied to a long studied disease. Systems biology
promotes a new insight into the pathophysiology of AD by interpreting the altered
expression of genes. This work compared the gene expression in 54,675 key genes
between control brains and AD brains using an algorithm designed to discover genes
of importance. This provided a set of the top 100 genes of interest, which were then
used to find interactions between the genes and build an “Interaction Map” to
visualise. The results highlight several key pathways in AD. The pathways with the
most genes involved were those tasked with protein degradation (UCHL1, CDK5,
IPTKB) and cytoskeletal growth (TUBB3/4, TUBA1C). As well as this, many genes
were located that have specific ties to amyloid plaques (MBNL1, HNRNP) and
neurofibrillary tangles (SNCA), the key physical manifestations of AD. The interaction
map provides a visible stimulus in understanding the key aspects of AD and the way
in which they interact.