Shared Pathways and Potential Therapeutic Targets in Major Psychiatric Disorders: Integrative Network and Molecular Docking Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32350/sir.101.05Keywords:
docking, network, neurology, protein-protein interaction (PPI), psychologyAbstract
There is significant clinical and genetic similarity between mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (BD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and suicidal behavior. This indicates that there are shared molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of these disorders. Understanding these shared biological pathways is crucial to finding strong biomarkers and targeted therapies. The current study focused on the detailed network biology with an aim to uncover the genes that play a major role in neuropsychiatric disorders. The study used different diseases, specific databases, and literature search to identify twenty-three diseases, associated genes, and developed a Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network. Forty genes that were functionally interacting and enriched in biologically relevant processes were added to the network to provide a broader picture of the molecular landscape. NRXN1 is the most important molecule in all four disorders, according to an analysis of network topology. This suggests that NRXN1 plays a crucial role in synaptic architecture and neural transmission, which is consistent with its function in the brain. Other hub genes that have been found to be essential to interconnected regulatory networks implicated in neuropsychiatric pathophysiology include ANK3, DRD2, BDNF, FKBP5, SLC6A4, HTR2A, and CACNA1C. The results revealed converging molecular pathways and identified important regulatory hubs that could be of interest in diagnostics and therapy. Based on the prioritized hub proteins, selected candidate compounds were used for structure-based molecular docking to explore the therapeutic potential. The docking analysis showed that the identified molecular targets had favorable protein-ligand binding interactions, indicating their potential for therapeutic applications. While experimental validation is needed, the combination of network biology and molecular docking offers important clues to the common molecular environment of complex psychiatric disorders and can be used to identify potential targets for precision medicine. In conclusion, this study contributed to the understanding of the common molecular architecture of the major neuropsychiatric disorders and offered a systems biology approach to biomarker discovery and targeted therapeutic strategies.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Azmat Aziz, Muhammad Shahan, Mahfooz Hassan, Muhammad Ayaz, Muhammad Awais Ali, Mukhtar Alam, Muhammad Ilyas
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