Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes chronic infection of the liver, which may end up in chronic liver disease, cirrhosis or liver cancer. Identification of biomarkers for HCV infection will aid in the diagnosis and management of the disease as well as the development of novel therapeutics. Here, we introduce a systems biology method to identify critical host targets for HCV infection. We analyzed human protein–protein interactions (PPIs) network of HCV-targeted proteins. Critical host targets of HCV infection were identified using multiple network centrality measures and functional properties of the target proteins. Finally, we identified three genes, namely APOA2, APOA1 and APOB, as most crucial for HCV infection from a candidate pool of 241 human genes. Pathway enrichment analysis of the top human targets of HCV indicates infection-specific pathways. The above three proteins may function as biomarkers for HCV infection and given their secreted nature, may be considered for therapeutic targets. Our proposed method may be useful to find potential biomarkers for other viral infections and develop host-directed antiviral treatment.
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Acknowledgements
R.K.B. acknowledges the Senior Research Fellowship of Indian Council of Medical Research [No. ISRM/11(39)/2017]. A.M. acknowledges the support received from the research project (Memo No: 355(Sanc.)/ST/P/S&T/6G-10/2018 dt.08/03/2019) of Dept. of Science & Technology and Biotechnology, Govt. of West Bengal, India at University of Kalyani.
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RKB, AM, UM and SD conceived and designed experiments; RKB executed experiments, RKB, AM, UM and SD analyzed data and wrote manuscript.
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Barman, R.K., Mukhopadhyay, A., Maulik, U. et al. Identification of Critical Host Targets for HCV Infection: A Systems Biology Approach. Trans Indian Natl. Acad. Eng. 6, 755–763 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41403-021-00239-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41403-021-00239-6