The Experience of Analyzing Biological Activity of Ursodeoxycholic Acid as Part of In Silico Prediction of the Gene Expression Profile

Abstract

This article was the first attempt to analyze the biological activity of ursodeoxycholic acid in the context of the in silico prediction of changes in activity of genes. Prediction of the dynamics of changes in gene activity was carried out using the DIGEP-Pred algorithm. The obtained gene arrays were analyzed using the GeneMANIA application. Gene annotation was obtained from The Human Protein Atlas. The results showed that the initial sample of genes is distributed according to the localization of expression into several groups: testes, cerebral cortex, placenta, and parathyroid glands. Groups of genes differed among themselves both in the number of members and in the number of relationships between them. The largest group included 25 genes. The activity of the genes of this group was localized to the testes. According to the prediction, all members of this group will be repressed after exposure to ursodeoxycholic acid. The next group consisted of 14 genes located in the cerebral cortex. Within this group, both an increase and a decrease in the activity of genes when exposed to ursodeoxycholic acid are predicted. Groups of the placenta and parathyroid glands contained relatively few genes (nine genes each) and were characterized by a low number of relationships between members. An analysis of the specialized literature revealed the effects of taking ursodeoxycholic acid, which may be associated with the changes in gene activity, which were predicted in silico. There was no unambiguous relationship between the groups of identified in silico genes and the effects described in the literature. It was revealed that 45 genes of the entire array of genes (81 genes) are prognostic markers of oncological processes.