The Use of the MiDA Software for Establishing Molecular Genetic Markers of the Risk of Developing Infectious Disease Complications

Abstract

Introduction. The search for specific molecular and genetic markers of the risk of developing infectious disease complications is a current area of research in modern medical and biological science. Materials and methods. In order to solve this issue, we developed a MiDA software that implements an integrated approach allowing for selection of potential markers on the basis of indicators of expression fold change of a number of genes in the comparison groups and the feature importance for classification, i.e. the assignment of samples to the analyzed groups. Results. Using the MiDA software, we searched for molecular and genetic markers of the risk of developing severe dengue fever and chronic brucellosis. As a result of the study, the HSPA6 gene was proposed as a risk marker for the dengue complication. HSPA6 expression was reduced in the peripheral blood samples of severe dengue cases. Markers of chronic brucellosis included a decrease in the expression of miRNA hsa-miR-198 and hsa-miR-501-3p, as well as an increase in the expression of miRNA hsa-miR-618 in CD4+ T-lymphocytes. Conclusion. We demonstrated the possibility of applying the MiDA software to the analysis of big data obtained using modern techniques (sequencing, biochips, etc.). It is possible to expand the scope of the software application in order to analyze the expression of genes, transcripts and proteins in diseases of various origins, to determine molecular mechanisms of the pathological process, to search for diagnostic and prognostic markers of the disease, as well as potential targets for the development of specific therapies.