Large-Scale Analysis of Network Bistability for Human Cancers

Protein–protein interaction and gene regulatory networks are likely to be locked in a state corresponding to a disease by the behavior of one or more bistable circuits exhibiting switch-like behavior. Sets of genes could be over-expressed or repressed when anomalies due to disease appear, and the circuits responsible for this over- or under-expression might persist for as long as the disease state continues. This paper shows how a large-scale analysis of network bistability for various human cancers can identify genes that can potentially serve as drug targets or diagnosis biomarkers.Author Summary: Since most disease states exhibit a certain level of resilience against therapeutic interventions, each disease state can be considered to be homeostatic to some extent. There must be one or more mechanisms that cause the gene-regulatory network to maintain a certain state, and one such mechanism is a bistable switch. In this work, bistable switch networks were constructed and their ON(upregulated)/OFF(downregulated) states were compared between human cancers and healthy control samples. Changes in the ON/OFF state with the progression of cancer were demonstrated. A series of genes that might serve as a drug target or diagnosis biomarker was identified. The approach presented here should provide useful insights into the states of biological networks, which may lead to the discovery of novel drug targets and therapeutic interventions.