TY - JOUR T1 - Mechanistic modeling of the SARS-CoV-2 disease map. JF - BioData Min Y1 - 2021 A1 - Rian, Kinza A1 - Esteban-Medina, Marina A1 - Hidalgo, Marta R A1 - Cubuk, Cankut A1 - Falco, Matias M A1 - Loucera, Carlos A1 - Gunyel, Devrim A1 - Ostaszewski, Marek A1 - Peña-Chilet, Maria A1 - Dopazo, Joaquin AB -

Here we present a web interface that implements a comprehensive mechanistic model of the SARS-CoV-2 disease map. In this framework, the detailed activity of the human signaling circuits related to the viral infection, covering from the entry and replication mechanisms to the downstream consequences as inflammation and antigenic response, can be inferred from gene expression experiments. Moreover, the effect of potential interventions, such as knock-downs, or drug effects (currently the system models the effect of more than 8000 DrugBank drugs) can be studied. This freely available tool not only provides an unprecedentedly detailed view of the mechanisms of viral invasion and the consequences in the cell but has also the potential of becoming an invaluable asset in the search for efficient antiviral treatments.

VL - 14 IS - 1 U1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33478554?dopt=Abstract ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Drug repurposing for COVID-19 using machine learning and mechanistic models of signal transduction circuits related to SARS-CoV-2 infection. JF - Signal Transduct Target Ther Y1 - 2020 A1 - Loucera, Carlos A1 - Esteban-Medina, Marina A1 - Rian, Kinza A1 - Falco, Matias M A1 - Dopazo, Joaquin A1 - Peña-Chilet, Maria KW - Computational Chemistry KW - COVID-19 KW - drug repositioning KW - Humans KW - Machine Learning KW - Molecular Docking Simulation KW - Molecular Targeted Therapy KW - Proteins KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - Signal Transduction VL - 5 IS - 1 U1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33311438?dopt=Abstract ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Mechanistic models of signaling pathways deconvolute the glioblastoma single-cell functional landscapeAbstract JF - NAR Cancer Y1 - 2020 A1 - Falco, Matias M A1 - Peña-Chilet, Maria A1 - Loucera, Carlos A1 - Hidalgo, Marta R A1 - Dopazo, Joaquin VL - 2 UR - https://academic.oup.com/narcancer/article/doi/10.1093/narcan/zcaa011/5862620http://academic.oup.com/narcancer/article-pdf/2/2/zcaa011/33428092/zcaa011.pdfhttp://academic.oup.com/narcancer/article-pdf/2/2/zcaa011/33428092/zcaa011.pdf IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Platform to study intracellular polystyrene nanoplastic pollution and clinical outcomes. JF - Stem Cells Y1 - 2020 A1 - Bojic, Sanja A1 - Falco, Matias M A1 - Stojkovic, Petra A1 - Ljujic, Biljana A1 - Gazdic Jankovic, Marina A1 - Armstrong, Lyle A1 - Markovic, Nebojsa A1 - Dopazo, Joaquin A1 - Lako, Majlinda A1 - Bauer, Roman A1 - Stojkovic, Miodrag KW - Environmental Pollution KW - Humans KW - Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells KW - Intracellular Space KW - Nanoparticles KW - Plastics KW - Polystyrenes KW - Transcriptome KW - Treatment Outcome AB -

Increased pollution by plastics has become a serious global environmental problem, but the concerns for human health have been raised after reported presence of microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) in food and beverages. Unfortunately, few studies have investigate the potentially harmful effects of MPs/NPs on early human development and human health. Therefore, we used a new platform to study possible effects of polystyrene NPs (PSNPs) on the transcription profile of preimplantation human embryos and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Two pluripotency genes, LEFTY1 and LEFTY2, which encode secreted ligands of the transforming growth factor-beta, were downregulated, while CA4 and OCLM, which are related to eye development, were upregulated in both samples. The gene set enrichment analysis showed that the development of atrioventricular heart valves and the dysfunction of cellular components, including extracellular matrix, were significantly affected after exposure of hiPSCs to PSNPs. Finally, using the HiPathia method, which uncovers disease mechanisms and predicts clinical outcomes, we determined the APOC3 circuit, which is responsible for increased risk for ischemic cardiovascular disease. These results clearly demonstrate that better understanding of NPs bioactivities and its implications for human health is of extreme importance. Thus, the presented platform opens further aspects to study interactions between different environmental and intracellular pollutions with the aim to decipher the mechanism and origin of human diseases.

VL - 38 IS - 10 U1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32614127?dopt=Abstract ER - TY - JOUR T1 - The pan-cancer pathological regulatory landscape. JF - Scientific reports Y1 - 2016 A1 - Falco, Matias M A1 - Bleda, Marta A1 - Carbonell-Caballero, José A1 - Joaquín Dopazo AB - Dysregulation of the normal gene expression program is the cause of a broad range of diseases, including cancer. Detecting the specific perturbed regulators that have an effect on the generation and the development of the disease is crucial for understanding the disease mechanism and for taking decisions on efficient preventive and curative therapies. Moreover, detecting such perturbations at the patient level is even more important from the perspective of personalized medicine. We applied the Transcription Factor Target Enrichment Analysis, a method that detects the activity of transcription factors based on the quantification of the collective transcriptional activation of their targets, to a large collection of 5607 cancer samples covering eleven cancer types. We produced for the first time a comprehensive catalogue of altered transcription factor activities in cancer, a considerable number of them significantly associated to patient’s survival. Moreover, we described several interesting TFs whose activity do not change substantially in the cancer with respect to the normal tissue but ultimately play an important role in patient prognostic determination, which suggest they might be promising therapeutic targets. An additional advantage of this method is that it allows obtaining personalized TF activity estimations for individual patients. VL - 6 UR - http://www.nature.com/articles/srep39709 ER -