JPBS

Recently, a seminal model, called the omnigenic model, is proposed for understanding complex traits such as schizophrenia. In this study, we examined this model in Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease from the perspectives of expression spectrum, shared disease-associated genes, common biological pathways, organ specificities, and network properties. Our results support the arguments brought forward by the omnigenic model. Although we only provided the limited evidence for the omnigenic model in neurodegenerative diseases, we hope that our effort can improve the understanding of these diseases and thus spur new ideas on how to prevent and treat them. The most important information we try to convey in our study is that there are more genes than we expected playing a role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and it is insufficient to study these diseases only focusing on some core genes or genetic pathways.

Omnigenic model;Neurodegenerative diseases; Alzheimers disease; Parkinsons disease