Identification of common therapeutic targets for selected neurodegenerative disorders: An in silico approach

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) are a heterogeneous group of disorders generally characterized by a profound decrease in the size and volume of the human brain due to death of neurons. These disorders include a variety of progressive disorders that result in cognitive and/or motor degradation. The present study was conducted to identify common potential targets for multi-neurodegenerative diseases. To accomplish this, we have selected six common neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Huntington's disease (HD), Prion disease and Dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) for identification of common regulatory target proteins. A total of sixteen common proteins were identified as target proteins by disease pathway analysis and previous studies based on their association with more than two NDs, including AD. An interaction network of each of the sixteen target proteins was then constructed against causative proteins selected from all six NDs by using the STRING 9.1 program. Pathway analysis and the protein-protein interaction network suggested that CASP-3 and CASP-8 were associated with the maximum number of selected NDs and may therefore be the most potent target proteins for treatment of multi-neurodegenerative diseases.