Disrupting a gene interaction network

Question

[george]

Hi I am working with EVs in leukemia and I am trying to find a way to disrupt the role of the EVs that come out of leukemic cells in the progression of the disease. I found some genes that are upregulated and downregulated due to the presence of leukemic EVs so I focused on them. I used cytoscape and cytohubba and found the top 100 genes, miRNAs and lncRNAs that are connected to these genes based on the MCC. I also tracked the shortest paths between these genes and each gene, miRNA and lncRNA. How can I choose one or multiple of these 100 so that if it is disrupted it will have the biggest impact on this network and maybe destroy it? Thank you very much for any answers!

Answer 1

[Scooter]

Greetings George,

I would look at calculating some centralities for your network -- specifically look for degree centrality and betweenness centrality. Hi degree centrality would indicate a hub node that might have a major impact if disrupted and high betweenness centrality might indicate a critical pathway.

-- scooter

[Jean-Karim Heriche]

and see this older answer for a quick explanation of these centrality measures

[george]

Thank you very much both for your help!