Redução do uso de animais através da bioinformática: técnicas in-silico apontam alvos moleculares / Reduction in the utilization of animals through bioinformatics: in-silico techniques point towards molecular targets

ABSTRACT

Model animals are indispensable in the advancement of life sciences. Computational analyses can save time and reduce the number of animals needed. Bioinformatics offer tools that support research through in-silico evaluations. Our aim was to study the function of exercise-linked genes, focusing on disease pathways, envisaging the discovery of new molecular targets for the use in animal model studies. This research was part of two projects approved by the local Ethics Committee (CEUA/UECE) in 04/2014 (1592060/2014) and 07/2015 (2542310/2015). Human genes linked to physical exercise were classified by the pathways using the enrichment tool Enrichnet. Statistical analyses (ANOVA) were used using the Fisher test (q-value). Strong correlations were found with neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and immunologic diseases. Within neurodegenerative diseases, physical exercise was found to be linked to Parkinson’s (q-value 1.6 X10-17), Alzheimer’s (q-value 3.9 X10-16) and Huntington disease (q-value 1.9 X10-15). Within cardiovascular diseases linked to exercise there is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (q-value 8.5 X10-15). A large number of genes linked to exercise were found to participate in disease linked metabolic pathways. Concluding, after evaluating genes linked to physical exercise and disease pathways, new molecular targets for the use in model animal studies were revealed.