Meta-Biol

• Pathways

For centuries influenza epidemics have plagued man; with influenza probably being the disease described by Hippocrates in 412 BC. Today it remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with large segments of the human population affected every year. Many animal species can be infected by influenza viruses, often with catastrophic consequences. An influenza pandemic is a continuing global level threat. The 1918 influenza pandemic is a modern example of how devastating such an event could be with an estimated 50 million deaths worldwide.

Influenza viruses belong to the family of Orthomyxoviridae; viruses with segmented RNA genomes that are negative sense and single-stranded (Baltimore 1971). Influenza virus strains are named according to their type (A, B, or C), the species from which the virus was isolated (omitted if human), location of isolate, the number of the isolate, the year of isolation, and in the case of influenza A viruses, the hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) subtype. For example, the virus of H5N1 subtype isolated from chickens in Hong Kong in 1997 is: influenza A/chicken/Hong Kong/220/97(H5N1) virus. Currently 16 different hemagglutinin (H1 to H16) subtypes and 9 different neuraminidase (N1 to N9) subtypes are known for influenza A viruses. Most human disease is due to influenza viruses of the A type. The events of influenza infection have been annotated in Reactome primarily use protein and genome references to the Influenza A virus A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 H1N1 strain. The influenza virus particle initially associates with a human host cell by binding to sialic acid receptors on the host cell surface. Sialic acids are found on many vertebrate cells and numerous viruses make use of this ubiquitous receptor. The bound virus is endocytosed by one of four distinct mechanisms. Once endocytosed the low endosomal pH sets in motion a number of steps that lead to viral membrane fusion mediated by the viral hemagglutinin (HA) protein, and the eventual release of the uncoated viral ribonucleoprotein complex into the cytosol of the host cell. The ribonucleoprotein complex is transported through the nuclear pore into the nucleus. Once in the nucleus, the incoming negative-sense viral RNA (vRNA) is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA) by a primer-dependent mechanism. Replication occurs via a two step process. A full-length complementary RNA (cRNA), a positive-sense copy of the vRNA, is first made and this in turn is used as a template to produce more vRNA. The viral proteins are expressed and processed and eventually assemble with vRNAs at what will become the budding sites on the host cell membrane. The viral protein and ribonucleoprotein complexes are assembled into complete viral particles and bud from the host cell, enveloped in the host cell's membrane.

Infection of a human host cell with influenza virus triggers an array of defensive host processes. This coevolution has driven the development of host processes that interfere with viral replication, notably the production of type I interferon. At the some time the virus counters these responses with the viral NS1 protein playing a central role in the viral response to the host cells defense.

Infectious diseases are ones due to the presence of pathogenic microbial agents in human host cells. Processes annotated in this category include bacterial, viral and parasitic infection pathways.

Bacterial infection pathways currently include some metabolic processes mediated by intracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the actions of clostridial, anthrax, and diphtheria toxins, and the entry of Listeria monocytogenes into human cells.

Viral infection pathways currently include the life cycles of SARS-CoV viruses, influenza virus, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV).

Parasitic infection pathways currently include Leishmania infection-related pathways.

Fungal infection pathways and prion diseases have not been annotated.

Biological processes are captured in Reactome by identifying the molecules (DNA, RNA, protein, small molecules) involved in them and describing the details of their interactions. From this molecular viewpoint, human disease pathways have three mechanistic causes: the inclusion of microbially-expressed proteins, altered functions of human proteins, or changed expression levels of otherwise functionally normal human proteins.

The first group encompasses the infectious diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis and HIV infection. The second group involves human proteins modified either by a mutation or by an abnormal post-translational event that produces an aberrant protein with a novel function. Examples include somatic mutations of EGFR and FGFR (epidermal and fibroblast growth factor receptor) genes, which encode constitutively active receptors that signal even in the absence of their ligands, or the somatic mutation of IDH1 (isocitrate dehydrogenase 1) that leads to an enzyme active on 2-oxoglutarate rather than isocitrate, or the abnormal protein aggregations of amyloidosis which lead to diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Infectious diseases are represented in Reactome as microbial-human protein interactions and the consequent events. The existence of variant proteins and their association with disease-specific biological processes is represented by inclusion of the modified protein in a new or variant reaction, an extension to the 'normal' pathway. Diseases which result from proteins performing their normal functions but at abnormal rates can also be captured, though less directly. Many mutant alleles encode proteins that retain their normal functions but have abnormal stabilities or catalytic efficiencies, leading to normal reactions that proceed to abnormal extents. The phenotypes of such diseases can be revealed when pathway annotations are combined with expression or rate data from other sources.

Depending on the biological pathway/process immediately affected by disease-causing gene variants, non-infectious diseases in Reactome are organized into diseases of signal transduction by growth factore receptors and second messengers, diseases of mitotic cell cycle, diseases of cellular response to stress, diseases of programmed cell death, diseases of DNA repair, disorders of transmembrane transporters, diseases of metabolism, diseases of immune system, diseases of neuronal system, disorders of developmental biology, disorders of extracellular matrix organization, and diseases of hemostatis.