A Systems Biological Approach Reveals Multiple Crosstalk Mechanism between Gram-Positive and Negative Bacterial Infections: An Insight into Core Mechanism and Unique Molecular Signatures

BACKGROUND Bacterial infections remain a major threat and a leading cause of death worldwide. Most of the bacterial infections are caused by gram-positive and negative bacteria, which are recognized by Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 and 4, respectively. Activation of these TLRs initiates multiple pathways that subsequently lead to effective immune response. Although, both the TLRs share common signaling mechanism yet they may exhibit specificity as well, resulting in the release of diverse range of inflammatory mediators which could be used as candidate biomolecules for bacterial infections. RESULTS We adopted systems biological approach to identify signaling pathways mediated by TLRs to determine candidate molecules associated with bacterial infections. We used bioinformatics concepts, including literature mining to construct protein-protein interaction network, prioritization of TLRs specific nodes using microarray data and pathway analysis. Our constructed PPI network for TLR 2 (nodes: 4091 and edges: 66068) and TLR 4 (node: 4076 and edges: 67898) showed 3207 common nodes, indicating that both the TLRs might share similar signaling events that are attributed to cell migration, MAPK pathway and several inflammatory cascades. Our results propose the potential collaboration between the shared signaling pathways of both the receptors may enhance the immune response against invading pathogens. Further, to identify candidate molecules, the TLRs specific nodes were prioritized using microarray differential expressed genes. Of the top prioritized TLR 2 molecules, 70% were co-expressed. A similar trend was also observed within TLR 4 nodes. Further, most of these molecules were preferentially found in blood plasma for feasible diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS The analysis reveals the common and unique mechanism regulated by both the TLRs that provide a broad perspective of signaling events in bacterial infections. Further, the identified candidate biomolecules could potentially aid future research efforts concerning the possibility in differential diagnosis of gram-positive and negative bacterial infections.