Significance of bioinformatics in research of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory disease characterized by the progressive deterioration of pulmonary function and increasing airway obstruction, with high morality all over the world. The advent of high-throughput omics techniques provided an opportunity to gain insights into disease pathogenesis and process which contribute to the heterogeneity, and find target-specific and disease-specific therapies. As an interdispline, bioinformatics supplied vital information on integrative understanding of COPD. This review focused on application of bioinformatics in COPD study, including biomarkers searching and systems biology. We also presented the requirements and challenges in implementing bioinformatics to COPD research and interpreted these results as clinical physicians.

Figure 1

Overview of the utility of bioinformatics in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Both genomics and proteomics provide information on candidates. By searching in various datasets and combining with clinical profiles, 'omis' studies may help to explain questions on disease classification, biomarker detection, and identification of mechanism.

Figure 2

The integration of IL-9 pathway and CCR3 pathway between biological function and pathology demonstrated cell proliferation-related remodeling, intracellular signal-associated inflammatory responses and over-activation of kinases-correlated emphysema in the pathogenesis of COPD.

Figure 3

Bioinformatics begin to take part in COPD investigation. The collaboration of epidemiologists, clinicians, geneticists and specialists in bioinformatics, in addition to specialists in disciplines less familiar to epidemiologists, is critical for further study. More co-operations are still needed.

Figure 4

Clinical bioinformatics can be generated from the analysis of COPD-specific pathological alterations. Patients with COPD can be selected by clinical informatics and criteria and the specific area is selected by micro-dissection. The tissue can be used for genomic (or proteomic) analysis and identified biomarkers are validated for the understanding of the pathogenesis.