A bird's eye view to the homeostatic, Alzheimer and Glioblastoma attractors

Available data for white matter of the brain allows to locate the normal (homeostatic), Glioblastoma and Alzheimers disease attractors in gene expression space and to identify paths related to transitions like carcinogenesis or Alzheimers disease onset. A predefined path for aging is also apparent, which is consistent with the hypothesis of programmatic aging. In addition, reasonable assumptions about the relative strengths of attractors allow to draw a schematic landscape of fitness: a Wrights diagram. These simple diagrams reproduce known relations between aging, Glioblastoma and Alzheimers disease, and rise interesting questions like the possible connection between programmatic aging and Glioblastoma in this tissue. We anticipate that similar multiple diagrams in other tissues could be useful in the understanding of the biology of apparently unrelated diseases or disorders, and in the discovery of unexpected clues for their treatment. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=150 SRC="FIGDIR/small/568350v3_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (9K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e2ba82org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@42c55dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ab84cforg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19c32e4_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG In briefAging, carcinogenesis and Alzheimers disease onset in white matter of the brain are shown as paths or directions in gene-expression space, a simple view that allows the analysis of their mutual relations and to rise interesting questions such as whether programmatic aging could be related to avoiding the Glioblastoma. HighlightsO_LINormal homeostatic, Glioblastoma and Alzheimers disease attractors are apparent in gene-expression space C_LIO_LIThe relative disposition of paths for carcinogenesis and Alzheimers disease onset reproduce known relations between these diseases C_LIO_LIThe observed corridor for aging is consistent with programmatic aging C_LIO_LIAvoiding the fall into the huge basin of the Glioblastoma could be the subject of selection pressure C_LIO_LIAged normal samples could be captured by the weak Alzheimers disease attractor C_LI