Analysis of Virus-Host Interactomes through a network-centric approach

A bstract Viruses are small microorganisms that invade living cells and use them to replicate themselves. Viruses cause many common human infections (such as cold flu) as well as many lethal diseases. Therefore the comprehensive knowledge of mechanisms used by viruses to infect living cells, also known as host-pathogen interactions, is crucial. Mechanisms of infections of viruses are mediated by Protein-protein interactions (PPIs). PPIs are often modelled using graphs, thus the use of such a model may also explain mechanisms of infection of viruses. In this work, we propose a methodology to model and analyse host-pathogen interactions and a supporting tool able to analyse such data. We also analyse host-pathogen interactions of some common viruses demonstrating common mechanism and differences.