System biology approach to identify critical host genes for dengue infection

Dengue is currently the leading mosquito-borne viral disease of the world. Around 40% of the world’s population is at risk of dengue infection. This is caused by one of the four serotypes of dengue virus (DENV -1 to -4), which spreads between the humans by Aedes mosquitoes. Severe dengue is a life-threatening disease. Identification of critical human genes related to dengue infection leads to better understanding of the disease mechanisms, improved diagnostics and development of an effective treatment. Here, we introduced a novel systems biology approach to find crucial human genes for dengue infection. We have integrated a large volume of biological information on human genes throughout our analysis steps. We found three critical genes that presumably regulate the outcome of dengue infection from a pool of 244 human genes. Pathway enrichment analysis of these 3 genes also indicates infectious disease specific pathways. The proposed method may be useful for other viral diseases. Finally, the identification of crucial host genes for the virus can help the development of host-dependent antiviral drugs.