Network Intervention, a Method to Address Complex Therapeutic Strategies

Abstract

Objective: Network-based approaches emerged as powerful tools for studying complex diseases. Our intention in this article was to raise awareness of the benefits of new therapeutic strategy in biological networks context and provide an introduction to this topic.Methods: This article will discuss the rational for network intervention, and outline some of the important aspects of deciphering targets activities in the network and future embodiments of network intervention. We also present examples of network intervention based on the strategies these approaches use.Results: Network intervention seeks for target combinations to perturb a specific subset of nodes in disease networks to inhibit the bypass mechanisms at systems level. Experimental results derived from our studies are discussed, with conclusions that lead to future research directions. A simple diagram is designed to give a way to find the minimum number of external input required for a network intervention based on the graph theory and get the analytical value of the least input.Conclusion: Creating network intervention that addresses blindness and unthinking action in this way could, therefore, provide more benefit than multi-target therapy. We hope that this article will give readers an appreciation for a new therapeutic strategy that has been proposed for improving clinical benefit by adopting network-based approaches as well as insight into their properties.

Identifying the Antiproliferative Effect of Astragalus Polysaccharides on Breast Cancer: Coupling Network Pharmacology With Targetable Screening From the Cancer Genome Atlas

“…The evolving method of network pharmacology provides such a paradigm, which aims at identifying compounds that regulate the activity of multiple targets in the impaired mechanisms network and deregulate interactions underlying a disease phenotype, either by targeting multiple pathways or by reducing potential adverse effects (28, 29). In such a network environment, therapeutic response can be taken into account from the robustness of complex disease networks to deal with node attacks, due to the inherent diversity and redundant compensation signaling pathways that result in highly resilient network systems with topological interactions (30). Specific intervention concepts for network targeting reveal the complex mechanisms of drug action, suggesting that the effects of small molecule compounds may have multifactorial interventions on different targets (31).…”