Delineation of protein networks affected by somatic mutation in neuroblastoma

Aim:The mutational spectrum of neuroblastoma is highly heterogeneous. Here, we aim to delineate protein interaction networks that are recurrently affected by somatic mutations in neuroblastoma using whole exome sequencing. Method: Using the concepts of network hierarchy and modularity, we developed a novel similarity metric to compare pairs of genes. The metric incorporates information about the structure of the protein interaction network around both compared genes. Combined with unsupervised clustering the metric can identify mutations that group in tightly connected subnetworks. Results: We identified 257 som…