Useful bioinformatics approaches for studying pathological conditions characterized by the dysregulation of glucose metabolism

Glucose plays a central role in metabolism, being a key molecule to obtain energy, a precursor of structural macromolecules, and a substrate of essential biomolecules, such as nucleotides and coenzymes. The chronic derangement of glucose metabolism has widespread consequences extending beyond immediate metabolic adaptations to the modulation of gene expression and of protein interactions/signaling cascades. In the advent of the -omics era, bioinformatics tools became very valuable for the prioritization of putative biomarkers and/or for the identification of potential therapeutic targets for any disease characterized by a dysregulation of glucose metabolism. Herein, we demonstrate the usefulness of several bioinformatics tools, based on three case studies selected in the scope of conditions characterized by a state of chronic hyperglycemia. At the end of this chapter, the reader will be able to identify dysregulated pathways modulated by microRNAs using miRnet (case study #1) to perform protein–protein interaction analysis with STRING aiming to disclose potential therapeutic targets (case study #2) and, finally, to uncover dysregulated metabolic pathways in a state of hyperglycemia using MetaboAnalyst (case study #3).