Integrative analysis of pathway deregulation in obesity

• Main Authors: Francesc Font-Clos, Stefano Zapperi, Caterina A.M. La Porta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017-06-01
• Series: npj Systems Biology and Applications
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41540-017-0018-z

Obesity transcriptomic signature shares features with cancer The worldwide increase in obesity is extremely worrisome, especially because this condition is associated with a higher risk for diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cancer. Identifying alterations in regulatory and metabolic activities associated with obesity is complicated due to the presence of noise. A team lead by Caterina La Porta from the University of Milan addressed the question from the point of view of big data and extracted a signature of 38 genes associated to obesity from the combination of publicly available gene expression data from obese and lean subjects. The results revealed a similarity between the deregulation patterns observed in obesity and those found in breast cancer and diabetes, providing a clearer picture of the role of obesity in these diseases.