Novel biomarkers discovery for HBV and HCV monitoring through protein interaction networks analysis

According to the World Health Organization hepatitis is a global threat to public health. Various statistics reveal that hundreds of millions of people worldwide are infected by chronic hepatitis C (HCV), which accounts for only the 15% of viral hepatitis. Hepatitis B (HBV) is the second chronic type of the virus with even larger numbers that reach up to 350 million carriers. Several research efforts have been focused recently on the underlying mechanisms of the infection and particularly on the assessment of gene/protein expressions. The utilization of protein interaction networks (PINs) is expected to identify novel aspects of the disease concerning both the patients´ immune response and preventive treatment regimens. Here we designed several PINs for HCV and HBV and employed topological, modular and functional analysis techniques in order to determine significant network nodes that correspond to prominent candidate biomarkers.