Inferring drug-induced gene regulatory relationships in primary human hepatocytes

Statins are widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs that inhibit HMG-CoA reductase, a key enzyme in cholesterol synthesis. In some cases, however, these drugs may cause a number of toxic side effects in hepatocytes and skeletal muscle tissue. Currently, the specific molecular mechanisms that cause these adverse effects are not sufficiently understood. In this work, genome-wide RNA expression changes in primary human hepatocytes of six individuals were measured at five time points upon atorvastatin treatment. A novel systems-level analysis workflow was applied to reconstruct regulatory mechanisms based on these drug-response data and available knowledge about transcription factor binding specificities, protein-protein interactions and protein-drug interactions. Several previously unknown transcription factors, regulatory cofactors and signaling molecules were found to be involved in atorvastatin-responsive gene expression. Some novel relationships, e.g., the regulatory influence of nuclear receptor NR2C2 on CYP3A4, were successfully validated in wet-lab experiments.

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Schröder A, Wollnik J, Wrzodek C, Dräger A, Bonin M, Burk O, Thomas M, Thasler WE, Zanger UM, Zell A