Network-based gene prediction for TCM symptoms

The diagnosis and treatment of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are formed based on the differentiation of syndromes and symptoms. Symptom management is always the core task of nursing science. Connotation between TCM symptoms and Modern medicine (MM) symptoms are obvious different, especially tongue and pulse symptoms of TCM. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of most TCM symptoms remain unclear. Here, we developed a network-based framework to predict candidate genes of TCM symptoms (called PTsGene) and construction a high-quality set of TCM symptom-gene associations. Experimental results indicated that PTsGene performed significantly better than the baseline algorithms. The reliability of the candidate genes of symptoms (containing one of typical symptoms of COVID-19, fever) were validated by the analysis of functional homogeneity, molecular co-expression, and recently published literatures. Finally, a high-quality set of TCM symptom-gene associations is constructed to promote the mechanism developments of TCM symptoms. Prediction and construction for reliable TCM symptom-gene associations are valuable for uncovering the underlying molecular mechanisms of TCM symptoms. Our TCM symptom-gene associations deliver a highly insightful data sources for researchers both from basic and clinical settings of precision healthcare.

I. Introduction

Thousands of years of clinical practices have demonstrated that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) plays a significant role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. For example, high rate of COVID-19 infected patients in China have received TCM therapies, which achieved therapeutic effects and brings new hope of the prevention and control of COVID-19 [1]. The core of TCM diagnosis is syndrome differentiation based on symptom and signs [2]. Symptoms represent the clinical phenotype or manifestation of a disease [3], which are of highly clinical, research and policy concern because they are the most common reason for patients to seek health care and the main diagnostic source for clinicians [4]. Particularly, mental disorders solely incorporate symptoms as the diagnostic criterion [5]. There is obvious difference between the connotation of TCM symptoms and Modern medicine (MM) symptoms, especially tongue and pulse symptoms of TCM. And the underlying molecular mechanisms of a majority of TCM symptoms remain unclear.