A comprehensive database for integrated analysis of omics data in autoimmune diseases

BMC Bioinformatics. 2021 Jun 24;22(1):343. doi: 10.1186/s12859-021-04268-4.

Abstract

Background: Autoimmune diseases are heterogeneous pathologies with difficult diagnosis and few therapeutic options. In the last decade, several omics studies have provided significant insights into the molecular mechanisms of these diseases. Nevertheless, data from different cohorts and pathologies are stored independently in public repositories and a unified resource is imperative to assist researchers in this field.

Results: Here, we present Autoimmune Diseases Explorer ( https://adex.genyo.es ), a database that integrates 82 curated transcriptomics and methylation studies covering 5609 samples for some of the most common autoimmune diseases. The database provides, in an easy-to-use environment, advanced data analysis and statistical methods for exploring omics datasets, including meta-analysis, differential expression or pathway analysis.

Conclusions: This is the first omics database focused on autoimmune diseases. This resource incorporates homogeneously processed data to facilitate integrative analyses among studies.

Keywords: Autoimmune disease; Curation; Database; Dataset; Epigenomics; GEO; Gene expression; Interferon signature; Meta-analysis; Transcriptomics.

MeSH terms

  • Autoimmune Diseases* / epidemiology
  • Autoimmune Diseases* / genetics
  • Computational Biology*
  • Databases, Factual
  • Humans