PO.BCS01.14 · 生物信息与计算
利用多尺度知识图谱框架绘制ALS中趋同的神经退行性与致癌通路
Mapping convergent neurodegenerative and oncogenic pathways in ALS using a multi-scale knowledge-graph framework
作者与单位 Authors & Affiliations
摘要 Abstract
中文摘要
肌萎缩侧索硬化症(ALS)在美国的发病率约为每10万人年1.5例,时点患病率为每10万人3.8-5.6例。ALS源于多种致病机制的交汇,涵盖基因突变(C9orf72、SOD1、FUS、TARDBP)、蛋白质错误折叠、RNA代谢缺陷、核质转运障碍、朊病毒样传播、线粒体功能障碍和神经炎症。来自血浆蛋白质组学和机器学习研究的越来越多的证据表明,这些扰动在临床发病前数年即已出现,凸显了对基于机制的患者分层的迫切需求。同时,流行病学和分子研究提示ALS与癌症之间存在意料之外的相似之处——包括失调的DNA损伤反应、细胞周期控制、代谢重编程和异常免疫信号——然而这些跨疾病联系仍支离破碎且未得到充分绘制。我们构建了一个整合遗传学、转录组学、蛋白质组学、神经病理学和纵向临床数据集的多尺度ALS-癌症知识图谱。应用知识图谱补全方法(包括链接预测、图嵌入和基于嵌入的推理)来推断缺失的边,并揭示将ALS相关遗传损伤与涉及基因组不稳定性、增殖改变、代谢重塑和免疫失调的致癌通路相连接的潜在模块。该方法能够系统性地探究ALS与癌症之间共享的分子程序,揭示那些双重作用已被提出但从未被全面绘制的、特征尚不明确的免疫、代谢和轴突转运环路。使用对已确立ALS基因的富集、与整理的致癌和神经退行性通路的重叠,以及按发病部位、进展速率和生物标志物特征对患者分层的能力,对预测的关联进行了评估。这些分析生成了患者特异性的通路指纹,可(i)解析临床亚组间的主导生物学机制,(ii)阐明神经退行性变与恶性肿瘤之间的机制交汇,(iii)优先排序可能与ALS相关的再利用肿瘤学靶点。该知识图谱框架提供了一种可扩展且基于机制的策略,用于对ALS患者进行分类、揭示ALS-癌症通路的趋同,并支持跨越传统孤立疾病领域的靶向治疗发现。
查看英文原文 English abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) affects approximately 1.5 per 100,000 person-years in the United States, with a point prevalence of 3.8-5.6 per 100,000. ALS arises from the intersection of diverse pathogenic mechanisms spanning genetic mutations (C9orf72, SOD1, FUS, TARDBP), protein misfolding, RNA-metabolism defects, nucleocytoplasmic transport failure, prion-like propagation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neuroinflammation. Increasing evidence from plasma proteomics and machine-learning studies indicates that these perturbations emerge years prior to clinical onset, highlighting an urgent need for mechanistically grounded patient stratification. At the same time, epidemiologic and molecular studies suggest unexpected parallels between ALS and cancer-including dysregulated DNA-damage responses, cell-cycle control, metabolic rewiring, and aberrant immune signaling-yet these cross-disease links remain fragmented and poorly mapped. We developed a multi-scale ALS-cancer knowledge graph integrating genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic, neuropathological, and longitudinal clinical datasets. Knowledge-graph completion approaches, including link prediction, graph embeddings, and embedding-based reasoning, were applied to infer missing edges and reveal latent modules connecting ALS-associated genetic lesions to oncogenic pathways implicated in genome instability, altered proliferation, metabolic remodeling, and immune dysregulation. This approach enables systematic interrogation of shared molecular programs across ALS and cancer, exposing under-characterized immune, metabolic, and axonal-transport circuits whose dual roles have been suggested but never comprehensively mapped. Predicted associations were evaluated using enrichment for established ALS genes, overlap with curated oncogenic and neurodegenerative pathways, and their ability to stratify patients by site of onset, progression rate, and biomarker signatures. These analyses generated patient-specific pathway fingerprints that (i) resolve dominant biological mechanisms across clinical subgroups, (ii) illuminate mechanistic intersections between neurodegeneration and malignancy, and (iii) prioritize repurposed oncology targets with potential relevance to ALS. This knowledge-graph framework provides a scalable and mechanistically informed strategy for classifying ALS patients, uncovering ALS-cancer pathway convergence, and supporting targeted therapeutic discovery across traditionally siloed disease domains.
利益披露 Disclosure
V. Alevizos, None..
S. Edralin, None..
C. Xu, None..
G. A. Papakostas, None..
Z. Yue, None.