A New Strategy for the Old Challenge of Thalidomide: Systems Biology Prioritization of Potential Immunomodulatory Drug (IMiD)-Targeted Transcription Factors

Several molecular mechanisms of thalidomide embryopathy (TE) have been investigated, from anti-angiogenesis to oxidative stress to cereblon binding. Recently, it was discovered that thalidomide and its analogs, named immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs), induced the degradation of C2H2 transcription factors (TFs). This mechanism might impact the strict transcriptional regulation of the developing embryo. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the TFs altered by IMiDs, prioritizing the ones associated with embryogenesis through transcriptome and systems biology-allied analyses. This study comprises only the experimental data accessed through bioinformatics databases. First, proteins and genes reported in the literature as altered/affected by the IMiDs were annotated. A protein systems biology network was evaluated. TFs beta-catenin (CTNNB1) and SP1 play more central roles: beta-catenin is an essential protein in the network, while SP1 is a putative C2H2 candidate for IMiD-induced degradation. Separately, the differential expressions of the annotated genes were analyzed through 23 publicly available transcriptomes, presenting 8624 differentially expressed genes (2947 in two or more datasets). Seventeen C2H2 TFs were identified as related to embryonic development but not studied for IMiD exposure; these TFs are potential IMiDs degradation neosubstrates. This is the first study to suggest an integration of IMiD molecular mechanisms through C2H2 TF degradation.