Center for Complex Networks Research and Department of Physics, Northeastern University, 110 Forsyth Street, 111 Dana Research Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Nat Rev Genet. 2011 Jan;12(1):56-68. doi: 10.1038/nrg2918.
Given the functional interdependencies between the molecular components in a human cell, a disease is rarely a consequence of an abnormality in a single gene, but reflects the perturbations of the complex intracellular and intercellular network that links tissue and organ systems. The emerging tools of network medicine offer a platform to explore systematically not only the molecular complexity of a particular disease, leading to the identification of disease modules and pathways, but also the molecular relationships among apparently distinct (patho)phenotypes. Advances in this direction are essential for identifying new disease genes, for uncovering the biological significance of disease-associated mutations identified by genome-wide association studies and full-genome sequencing, and for identifying drug targets and biomarkers for complex diseases.
鉴于人类细胞中分子成分之间的功能相互依赖性，疾病很少是单个基因异常的结果，而是反映了连接组织和器官系统的复杂细胞内和细胞间网络的干扰。网络医学的新兴工具提供了一个平台，可以系统地探索不仅是特定疾病的分子复杂性，导致疾病模块和途径的识别，而且是明显不同的（病理）表型之间的分子关系。在这方面的进展对于确定新的疾病基因、揭示全基因组关联研究和全基因组测序确定的与疾病相关的突变的生物学意义以及确定复杂疾病的药物靶点和生物标志物至关重要。
