“Network medicine has been used to quantify disease mechanisms, comorbidities, and treatments, but most approaches have ignored interactions mediated by noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). This study systematically combines experimentally confirmed ncRNA and protein–protein interactions to construct a comprehensive network of all physical interactions in the human cell. The inclusion of ncRNA increases the number of genes and interactions in the interactome and enhances the ability to identify disease modules and predict comorbidity patterns between diseases. Ultimately, this study shows that including noncoding interactions improves the breadth and accuracy of network medicine.”

Find the paper and full list of authors at PNAS.