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Title

A systems biological study on the comorbidity of autism spectrum disorders and bipolar disorder

 

Authors

PK Ragunath1, R Chitra2, Shiek Mohammad1, PA Abhinand1*

 

Affiliation

1Department of Bioinformatics, Sri Ramachandra University, Porur, Chennai – 600 116, India; 2Department of Bioinformatics, University of Madras, Guindy, Chennai – 600 032, India

 

Email

sru.bioinformatics.research@gmail.com; *Corresponding author

 

Article Type

Hypothesis

 

Date

Received August 12, 2011; Accepted September 05, 2011; Published September 28,2011

 

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a “spectrum” of disorders, characterized by varying degrees of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Among Psychiatric disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders have the strongest evidence for a genetic basis, yet the search for specific genes contributing to these often devastating developmental syndromes has proven extraordinarily difficult. Bipolar Disorder (BP) is a manic-depressive disorder whose symptoms are characterized by extremities in moods. It is also called as the “Mood disorder”. BP, like, ASD also has a strong genetic basis and identification of the candidate genes still remains an ongoing effort. Literature studies point to the hypothesis that ASD and BP have good chances of comorbidity and that they may share common pathways for their manifestation. But this hypothesis has not been worked on in depth. Thus, the study focuses on identifying the chances of their comorbidity by identifying their common pathways and the genes involved in the pathways and also discuss the degree of chances of their comorbidity based on the genes involved in the common pathways. Networks for the genes are also constructed to represent their commonness or uniqueness for the disorders.

 

Keywords

Autism Spectrum Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Comorbidity, Systems Biology, Gene Networks

 

Citation

Ragunath et al. Bioinformation 7(3): 102-106 (2011)
 

Edited by

P Kangueane

 

ISSN

0973-2063

 

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

 

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.