Research Article
Clustering,PathwayEnrichment,andProtein-ProteinInteraction
Analysis of Gene Expression in Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Ruchi Yadav and Prachi Srivastava
Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow Campus, Lucknow 226028, UP, India
Correspondence should be addressed to Prachi Srivastava; psrivastava@amity.edu
Received 9 August 2018; Accepted 30 October 2018; Published 27 November 2018
Guest Editor: Azhar Rasul
Copyright © 2018 Ruchi Yadav and Prachi Srivastava. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Neuronal developmental disorder is a class of diseases in which there is impairment of the central nervous system and brain
function. e brain in its developmental phase undergoes tremendous changes depending upon the stage and environmental
factors. Neurodevelopmental disorders include abnormalities associated with cognitive, speech, reading, writing, linguistic,
communication, and growth disorders with lifetime effects. Computational methods provide great potential for betterment of
research and insight into the molecular mechanism of diseases. In this study, we have used four samples of microarray
neuronal developmental data: control, RV (resveratrol), NGF (nerve growth factor), and RV + NGF. By using computational
methods, we have identified genes that are expressed in the early stage of neuronal development and also involved in neuronal
diseases. We have used MeV application to cluster the raw data using distance metric Pearson correlation coefficient. Finally,
60 genes were selected on the basis of coexpression analysis. Further pathway analysis was done using the Metascape tool, and
the biological process was studied using gene ontology database. A total of 13 genes AKT1, BAD, BAX, BCL2, BDNF, CASP3,
CASP8, CASP9, MYC, PIK3CD, MAPK1, MAPK10, and CYCS were identified that are common in all clusters. ese genes
are involved in neuronal developmental disorders and cancers like colorectal cancer, apoptosis, tuberculosis, amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS), neuron death, and prostate cancer pathway. A protein-protein interaction study was done to identify
proteins that belong to the same pathway. ese genes can be used to design potential inhibitors against neurological
disorders at the early stage of neuronal development. e microarray samples discussed in this publication are part of the data
deposited in NCBI’s Gene Expression Omnibus (Yadav et al., 2018) and are accessible through GEO Series (accession
number GSE121261).
1.Introduction
1.1. Neuronal Development Disorder. Neurogenesis is a
process of generating new and functional neurons from
neuronal precursors known as NSC (neuronal stem cells)
[1, 2]. Functional neurons are generated at the embryonic
stage at different stages of development throughout life
[3, 4]. With rapid advancement in techniques and curiosity
to understand neuronal diseases at the development stage,
researchers have explored a wide area of neuronal devel-
opment diseases and their causes [5–8]. Neuronal stem cells
have two major features that are regeneration capacity, that
is, ability of self-renewal by process of cell division, and
differentiation capacity, that is, process of generating new
and specialized cell types [9]. Developed neurons do not
carry dendrites and axons, but they play an important role to
receive and send signals to other neurons [10]. Significant
development has been made to identify genes that are in-
volved in neuronal diseases at the developmental stage [11].
It is important to study different stages of nervous system
development and to identify abnormalities that can arise
from improper development of brain at its early stage [12].
Significant contribution has been made by scientists to
identify neuronal disorders that occur at the early stage of
development [13]. Neuronal disorders include abnormalities
associated with intellectual disability, attention deficit hy-
peractivity disorder (ADHD), and cognitive skills disorders,
like dyslexia and dysgraphia, and language development
Hindawi
Advances in Pharmacological Sciences
Volume 2018, Article ID 3632159, 10 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3632159