Abstract

REVIEW ON HIGH ALTITUDE MOUNTAIN SICKNESS AND BIOINFORMATICS AS A TOOL FOR ITS RESEARCH

Grace Ratna Roy¹ and *Shanmughavel Piramanayagam²

ABSTRACT

Pulmonary edema is an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the extravascular compartments of the lung. Exposure to acute hypoxia leads to pulmonary vasoconstriction. High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) is a form of acute noncardiogenic pulmonary edema caused by altitude-related hypoxia which ultimately leads to pulmonary vasoconstriction. Understanding the structure and function of receptors and mediators involved in its pathogenesis is vital for the identification of potential drug targets and inhibitors. Literature studies show that very little computational research is only reported with regard to HAPE. Hence, this review will provide a brief description of the bioinformatics analyses which will be suitable for research on High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. Some the bioinformatics analyses include the identification of potential drug targets for the disease management, construction of network and pathway models, and integration of the knowledge about disease phenotypes to identify effective preventive and treatment options for diseases. Analyses such as protein secondary and tertiary structure prediction and function prediction are important for analyzing the structure-function relationship of proteins which are involved in the pathophysiology of HAPE. Construction of biological pathway and network models can reveal information at the systems level for better understanding. This review provides a brief outline of HAPE and the computational methods which are useful for understanding the disease as well as to design new drugs.

Keywords: bioinformatics, altitude illness, high altitude pulmonary edema, protein structure prediction, pathways, drug designing.