Mitochondria interaction networks show altered topological patterns in Parkinson's disease

NPJ Syst Biol Appl. 2020 Nov 10;6(1):38. doi: 10.1038/s41540-020-00156-4.

Abstract

Mitochondrial dysfunction is linked to pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, individual mitochondria-based analyses do not show a uniform feature in PD patients. Since mitochondria interact with each other, we hypothesize that PD-related features might exist in topological patterns of mitochondria interaction networks (MINs). Here we show that MINs formed nonclassical scale-free supernetworks in colonic ganglia both from healthy controls and PD patients; however, altered network topological patterns were observed in PD patients. These patterns were highly correlated with PD clinical scores and a machine-learning approach based on the MIN features alone accurately distinguished between patients and controls with an area-under-curve value of 0.989. The MINs of midbrain dopaminergic neurons (mDANs) derived from several genetic PD patients also displayed specific changes. CRISPR/CAS9-based genome correction of alpha-synuclein point mutations reversed the changes in MINs of mDANs. Our organelle-interaction network analysis opens another critical dimension for a deeper characterization of various complex diseases with mitochondrial dysregulation.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Dopaminergic Neurons* / metabolism
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Machine Learning
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Mitochondria* / genetics
  • Mitochondria* / metabolism
  • Parkinson Disease* / genetics
  • Parkinson Disease* / metabolism
  • alpha-Synuclein / genetics
  • alpha-Synuclein / metabolism

Substances

  • alpha-Synuclein