RESEARCH ARTICLE Insight into glucocorticoid receptor signalling through interactome model analysis Emyr Bakker1, Kun Tian1, Luciano Mutti1, Constantinos Demonacos2, Jean- Marc Schwartz2☯*, Marija Krstic-Demonacos1☯* 1 Biomedical Research Centre, School of Environment and Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom, 2 Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. *
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[email protected] (MKD) a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract a1111111111 Glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) are used to treat a variety of diseases because of their potent anti-inflammatory effect and their ability to induce apoptosis in lymphoid malignan- cies through the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Despite ongoing research, high glucocorticoid efficacy and widespread usage in medicine, resistance, disease relapse and toxicity remain OPEN ACCESS factors that need addressing. Understanding the mechanisms of glucocorticoid signalling Citation: Bakker E, Tian K, Mutti L, Demonacos C, and how resistance may arise is highly important towards improving therapy. To gain insight Schwartz J-M, Krstic-Demonacos M (2017) Insight into this we undertook a systems biology approach, aiming to generate a Boolean model of into glucocorticoid receptor signalling through interactome model analysis. PLoS Comput Biol 13 the glucocorticoid receptor protein interaction network that encapsulates functional relation- (11): e1005825. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. ships between the GR, its target genes or genes that target GR, and the interactions pcbi.1005825 between the genes that interact with the GR. This model named GEB052 consists of 52 Editor: Andrey Rzhetsky, University of Chicago, nodes representing genes or proteins, the model input (GC) and model outputs (cell death UNITED STATES and inflammation), connected by 241 logical interactions of activation or inhibition.