Drug target identification using gene expression microarray data of Toxoplasma gondii

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular Apicomplexan parasite that caninfect a wide range of warmblooded animals including humans. This pathogen isone of the most common in humans due to many contributing factors thatinclude: (1) its complex life cycle allows it to be transmitted both sexually via felidfecal matter and asexually via carnivorism. (2) Toxoplasma has an extremelywide host cell tropism that includes most nucleated cells. (3) In humans andother intermediate hosts, Toxoplasma develops into a chronic infection thatcannot be eliminated by the host’s immune response or by currently used drugs.In most cases, chronic infections are largely asymptomatic unless the hostbecomes immune compromised and often suffer from life threateningencephalitis. Unfortunately, owing to the toxic side effects and general lowefficacy of all known drugs for toxoplasmosis, new chemotherapeutic agents areurgently required. The mechanisms by which Toxoplasma grows within its hostcell, encysts, and interacts with the host’s immune system are importantquestions. The use of DNA microarrays in transcriptional profiling, genotyping,and epigenetic experiments has impacted our understanding of these processes.In the past years, many existing data analysis methods from other fields havebeen applied to gene expression data. Among these, clustering methods are alarge family of commonly used data analysis methods. Clustering methods are Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular Apicomplexan parasite that caninfect a wide range of warmblooded animals including humans. This pathogen isone of the most common in humans due to many contributing factors thatinclude: (1) its complex life cycle allows it to be transmitted both sexually via felidfecal matter and asexually via carnivorism. (2) Toxoplasma has an extremelywide host cell tropism that includes most nucleated cells. (3) In humans andother intermediate hosts, Toxoplasma develops into a chronic infection thatcannot be eliminated by the host’s immune response or by currently used drugs.In most cases, chronic infections are largely asymptomatic unless the hostbecomes immune compromised and often suffer from life threateningencephalitis. Unfortunately, owing to the toxic side effects and general lowefficacy of all known drugs for toxoplasmosis, new chemotherapeutic agents areurgently required. The mechanisms by which Toxoplasma grows within its hostcell, encysts, and interacts with the host’s immune system are importantquestions. The use of DNA microarrays in transcriptional profiling, genotyping,and epigenetic experiments