Subnetwork identification and chemical modulation for neural regeneration: A study combining network guided forest and heat diffusion model

Abstract

Background: The induction of neural regeneration is vital to the repair of spinal cord injury (SCI). While compared with peripheral nervous system (PNS), the regenerative capacity of the central nervous system (CNS) is extremely limited. This indicates that modulating the molecular pathways underlying PNS repair may lead to the discovery of potential treatment for CNS injury.

Methods: Based on the gene expression profiles of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) after a sciatic nerve injury, we utilized network guided forest (NGF) to rank genes in terms of their capacity of distinguishing injured DRG from sham-operated controls. Gene importance scores deriving from NGF were used as initial heat in a heat diffusion model (HotNet2) to infer the subnetworks underlying neural regeneration in the DRG. After potential regulators of the subnetworks were found through Connectivity Map (cMap), candidate compounds were experimentally evaluated for their capacity to regenerate the damaged neurons.

Results: Gene ontology analysis of the subnetworks revealed ubiquinone biosynthetic process is crucial for neural regeneration. Moreover, almost half of the genes in these subnetworks are found to be related to neural regeneration via text mining. After screening compounds that are likely to modulate gene expressions of the subnetworks, three compounds were selected for the experiment. Of them, trichostatin A, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, was validated to enhance neurite outgrowth in vivo via an optic nerve crush mouse model.

Conclusions: Our study identified subnetworks underlying neural regeneration, and validated a compound can promote neurite outgrowth by modulating these subnetworks. This work also suggests an alternative approach for drug repositioning that can be easily extended to other disease phenotypes.

Author summary

Compared with peripheral nervous system, the regenerative capacity of the central nervous system is extremely limited. Thus, it may lead to the discovery of treatment for central nerve injury by modulating gene networks underlying peripheral nerve injury. Based on the gene expression profiles of dorsal root ganglion after a sciatic nerve injury, we defined gene networks underlying peripheral nerve injury. After screening compounds that were likely to modulate gene expressions of the networks, trichostatin A, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, was validated to enhance neurite outgrowth in vivo via an optic nerve crush mouse model.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

network guided forest / HotNet2 / neural regeneration / axon growth / neurotrophic factors

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SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

The supplementary materials can be found online with this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40484-018-0159-0.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2662017PY115)

COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICS GUIDELINES

The authors Hui Wang, Gang Wang, Li-Da Zhu, Xuan Xu, Bo Diao and Hong-Yu Zhang declare that they have no conflict of interests.

All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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