Network Biology and Medicine to Rescue: Applications for Retinal Disease Mechanisms and Therapy.

Abstract

Inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) are clinically and genetically heterogenous blinding diseases that manifest through dysfunction of target cells, photoreceptors, and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in the retina. Despite knowledge of numerous underlying genetic defects, current therapeutic approaches, including gene centric applications, have had limited success, thereby asserting the need of new directions for basic and translational research. Human diseases have commonalities that can be represented in a network form, called diseasome, which captures relationships among disease genes, proteins, metabolites, and patient meta-data. Clinical and genetic information of IRDs suggest shared relationships among pathobiological factors, making these a model case for network medicine. Characterization of the diseasome would considerably improve our understanding of retinal pathologies and permit better design of targeted therapies for disrupted regions within the integrated disease network. Network medicine in synergy with the ongoing artificial intelligence revolution can boost therapeutic developments, especially gene agnostic treatment opportunities.