Exploring the human diseasome: the human disease network

Abstract

Advances in genome-scale molecular biology and molecular genetics have greatly elevated our knowledge on the basic components of human biology and diseases. At the same time, the importance of cellular networks between those biological components is increasingly appreciated. Built upon these recent technological and conceptual advances, a new discipline called the network medicine, an approach to understand human diseases from a network point-of-view, is about to emerge. In this review article, we will survey some recent endeavours along this direction, centred on the concept and applications of the human diseasome and the human disease network. Questions, and partial answers thereof, such as how the connectivity between molecular parts translates into the relationships between the related disorders on a global scale and how central the disease-causing genetic components are in the cellular network, will be discussed. The use of the diseasome in combination with various interactome networks and other disease-related factors is also reviewed.