Journal of Pharmacogenomics & Pharmacoproteomics

Abstract

Towards a Comprehensive Understanding of miRNA Regulome and miRNA Interaction Networks

Joseph J Nalluri, Debmalya Barh, Vasco Azevedo and Preetam Ghosh

miRNAs are vital regulators of post transcriptional gene expression. Deregulation of miRNAs lead to susceptibility towards many diseases, especially cancers. Their complicated molecular mechanisms comprising of upstream transcriptions factors, downstream targets, functional and biological processes, and disease regulations are not fully comprehended yet. Hence, understanding the miRNA regulatory network comprehensively is pivotal to modulate its functions and develop miRNA therapeutics. At present, several independent databases and tools containing specific information about parts of a miRNA regulome exist in silo which prevents a holistic understanding of miRNA's molecular mechanism. Hence, integration of all scattered datasets in a cohesive manner in order to get an overarching understanding of the contributory influence and the effluence from the machinery of a miRNA regulome is critical. In this article, we present a case-report on miRegulome, a first comprehensive integrated knowledge base of miRNA regulome and miRNA interaction network analytic tools. miRegulome integrates the essential molecular modules of a miRNA regulome into a cohesive platform. We also discuss miRNA-disease interactions from miRegulome and devise graph theoretical strategies to analyze them. We also present a next-level design for an enhanced database repository for comprehensive data analysis collating diverse datasets related to miRNA biology; and present the need and challenges for the development of novel algorithms to predict new interactions between miRNAs, genes, transcription factors and diseases.