{"title":"Bioinformatics approaches for studying molecular sex differences in complex diseases.","authors":"Rebecca Ting Jiin Loo, Mohamed Soudy, Francesco Nasta, Mirco Macchi, Enrico Glaab","doi":"10.1093/bib/bbae499","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Many complex diseases exhibit pronounced sex differences that can affect both the initial risk of developing the disease, as well as clinical disease symptoms, molecular manifestations, disease progression, and the risk of developing comorbidities. Despite this, computational studies of molecular data for complex diseases often treat sex as a confounding variable, aiming to filter out sex-specific effects rather than attempting to interpret them. A more systematic, in-depth exploration of sex-specific disease mechanisms could significantly improve our understanding of pathological and protective processes with sex-dependent profiles. This survey discusses dedicated bioinformatics approaches for the study of molecular sex differences in complex diseases. It highlights that, beyond classical statistical methods, approaches are needed that integrate prior knowledge of relevant hormone signaling interactions, gene regulatory networks, and sex linkage of genes to provide a mechanistic interpretation of sex-dependent alterations in disease. The review examines and compares the advantages, pitfalls and limitations of various conventional statistical and systems-level mechanistic analyses for this purpose, including tailored pathway and network analysis techniques. Overall, this survey highlights the potential of specialized bioinformatics techniques to systematically investigate molecular sex differences in complex diseases, to inform biomarker signature modeling, and to guide more personalized treatment approaches.</p>","PeriodicalId":9209,"journal":{"name":"Briefings in bioinformatics","volume":"25 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":6.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11471957/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Briefings in bioinformatics","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbae499","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Many complex diseases exhibit pronounced sex differences that can affect both the initial risk of developing the disease, as well as clinical disease symptoms, molecular manifestations, disease progression, and the risk of developing comorbidities. Despite this, computational studies of molecular data for complex diseases often treat sex as a confounding variable, aiming to filter out sex-specific effects rather than attempting to interpret them. A more systematic, in-depth exploration of sex-specific disease mechanisms could significantly improve our understanding of pathological and protective processes with sex-dependent profiles. This survey discusses dedicated bioinformatics approaches for the study of molecular sex differences in complex diseases. It highlights that, beyond classical statistical methods, approaches are needed that integrate prior knowledge of relevant hormone signaling interactions, gene regulatory networks, and sex linkage of genes to provide a mechanistic interpretation of sex-dependent alterations in disease. The review examines and compares the advantages, pitfalls and limitations of various conventional statistical and systems-level mechanistic analyses for this purpose, including tailored pathway and network analysis techniques. Overall, this survey highlights the potential of specialized bioinformatics techniques to systematically investigate molecular sex differences in complex diseases, to inform biomarker signature modeling, and to guide more personalized treatment approaches.
期刊介绍:
Briefings in Bioinformatics is an international journal serving as a platform for researchers and educators in the life sciences. It also appeals to mathematicians, statisticians, and computer scientists applying their expertise to biological challenges. The journal focuses on reviews tailored for users of databases and analytical tools in contemporary genetics, molecular and systems biology. It stands out by offering practical assistance and guidance to non-specialists in computerized methodologies. Covering a wide range from introductory concepts to specific protocols and analyses, the papers address bacterial, plant, fungal, animal, and human data.
The journal's detailed subject areas include genetic studies of phenotypes and genotypes, mapping, DNA sequencing, expression profiling, gene expression studies, microarrays, alignment methods, protein profiles and HMMs, lipids, metabolic and signaling pathways, structure determination and function prediction, phylogenetic studies, and education and training.