A consideration of publication-derived immune-related associations in Coronavirus and related lung damaging diseases

Nophar Geifman; Anthony D Whetton

Network analysis of the interactions between the different entities captured from PubMed abstracts has identified some interesting and differing sub-networks and connections. For example, in the network generated from the Coronavirus-related associations ( Figure 4 ) different links between cytokines and immune cells and comorbidities or symptoms associated with Coronavirus can be seen. Where asthma and the common cold are directly linked to Interferon-gamma (IFNg), IL-8, IL-2 and IL-5, diarrhea is linked to IL-18. Differences in the types of cells included in each sub-network can also be seen. Similarly, in the SARS-related network, we identify differing sub-networks each around a different SARS-related comorbidity ( Figure 5 ); as we did in the H5N1-related network ( Figure 6 ). A) The whole network. B) Sub-network of first-degree neighbors of the disease node 'diarrhea'. C) Sub-network of first-degree neighbors of the disease node 'common cold'. D) Sub-network of first-degree neighbors of the disease node 'asthma'. Pink nodes represent cytokines, blue nodes represent diseases, and orange nodes represent cell types. The width of edges between nodes corresponds to the number of associations (co-occurrences) between the two entities; the size of the nodes corresponds to the count of that entity within the mined corpus. The whole network. B) Sub-network of first-degree neighbors of the disease node 'pulmonary edema'. C) Subnetwork of first-degree neighbors of the disease node 'lymphopenia'. D) Sub-network of first-degree neighbors of the disease node 'pneumonia'. Pink nodes represent cytokines, blue nodes represent diseases, and orange nodes represent cell types. The width of edges between nodes corresponds to the number of associations (co-occurrences) between the two entities; the size of the nodes corresponds to the count of that entity within the mined corpus.