Dysregulated epidermal growth factor and tumor growth factor-beta receptor signaling through GFAP-ACTA2 protein interaction in liver fibrosis

Abstract

Objective: Viral hepatitis is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Identification of biological pathways involved in hepatic fibrosis resulting from chronic hepatitis C are essential for better management of patients. Constructing the HCV-human protein interaction network through bioinformatics may enable us to discover diagnostic biological pathways. We investigated to identify dysregulated pathways and gene enrichment based on actin alpha 2 (ACTA2) and glial fibrillar acidic protein (GFAP) interaction network analysis in hepatic fibrosis. Methods: This is an in-silico study conducted at Ziauddin University from March,2019 to September 2019. Enrichment and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis of the identified proteins: GFAP and ACTA2 along with their mapped gene data sets was performed using FunRich version 3.1.3. Results: Biological pathway grouping showed enrichment of proteins (85.7%) in signalling pathway by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Tumor growth factor (TGF)-beta Receptor followed by signaling by PDGF, FGFR and NGF (71.4%) (p < 0.001). SRC, PRKACA, PRKCA and PRKCD were enriched in both EGFR and TGF-beta Signalling pathways. Conclusion: EGFR and TGF-beta signalling pathways were enriched in liver fibrosis. SRC, PRKACA, PRKCA and PRKCD were enriched and differentially expressed in both EGFR and TGF-beta signalling pathways doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.4.1845 How to cite this:Hassan S, Zil-e-Rubab, Shah H, Shawana S. Dysregulated epidermal growth factor and tumor growth factor-beta receptor signaling through GFAP-ACTA2 protein interaction in liver fibrosis. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(4):782-787. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.4.1845 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.