Identification of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Related Genes by Applying Shortest Path Algorithm in Protein-Protein Interaction Network

摘要

This study attempted to find novel age-related macular degeneration (AMD) related genes based on 36 known AMD genes. The well-known shortest path algorithm, Dijkstra's algorithm, was applied to find the shortest path connecting each pair of known AMD related genes in protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. The genes occurring in any shortest path were considered as candidate AMD related genes. As a result, 125 novel AMD genes were predicted. The further analysis based on betweenness and permutation test indicates that there are 10 genes involved in the formation or development of AMD and maybe the actual AMD related genes with high probability. We hope that this contribution would promote the study of age-related macular degeneration and discovery of novel effective treatments.