Identification of hub genes and molecular pathways in human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 associated diseases using protein-protein interactions networks

Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the cause of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). The present study aims to analyze gene expression patterns in ATL and HAM/TSP.

Microarray gene expression profiling of T-lymphocytes from HTLV-1 associated disease and healthy control were obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Several bioinformatics tools were used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Among the generated DEGs, we constructed protein-protein interaction (PPI) between HAM/TSM and ATL in comparison to asymptomatic carriers (ACs). Subsequently, gene ontology (GO) and topological analysis were performed.

We found that the majority of DEGs in ATL and HAM/TSP were importantly implicated in immune response categories. The nodes and edges number of normal-AC, AC-ATL and ATL-HAM/TSP PPIs were 168 and 145, 116 and 97, and 275 and 327, respectively. Based on the topological analyses of protein-protein interaction networks, APP (Amyloid Beta Precursor Protein) was detected as a critical player in progression of HTLV-1 disease.

Dysregulation of immune response associated transcripts play a critical role in HTLV-1 disease progression. Immune response associated genes may be biomarker for prognosis in cancer development and therapeutic targets.