Abstract
Lithium has many widely varying biochemical and phenomenological effects, suggesting that a systems biology approach is required to understand its action. Multiple lines of evidence point to lithium as a significant factor in development of cancer, showing that understanding lithium action is of high importance. In this paper we undertake first steps toward a systems approach by analyzing mutual enrichment between the interactomes of lithium-sensitive enzymes and the pathways associated with cancer. This work integrates information from two important databases, STRING, and KEGG pathways. We find that for the majority of cancer pathways the mutual enrichment is statistically highly significant, reinforcing previous lines of evidence that lithium is an important influence on cancer.
Highlights
IntroductionBy far the most common medical use of lithium is as a first line therapy for bipolar disorder, including associated depression as well as mania [1]
Clinical and Epidemiological Context for Lithium and CancerBy far the most common medical use of lithium is as a first line therapy for bipolar disorder, including associated depression as well as mania [1]
Our results are consistent with a variety of lines of evidence from both epidemiology and from experiment, cited in earlier sections of this paper, suggesting possible influence of lithium on the incidence and progression of cancer
Summary
By far the most common medical use of lithium is as a first line therapy for bipolar disorder, including associated depression as well as mania [1]. A retrospective study showed that psychiatric patients undergoing lithium therapy for bipolar disorder had a much lower incidence of cancer than a matched group not receiving lithium therapy [4]. On the other hand another nationwide study, this time from Denmark, showed no correlation of lithium with colorectal adenocarcinoma [7]. The Swedish study found that for the entire population lithium was not correlated with cancer incidence, but in addition found that bipolar individuals not treated with lithium had a higher incidence of cancer than the general population. Lithium-treated bipolar patients, on the other hand, had essentially the same cancer incidence as the general population
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