Pathway-level epigenetic modeling illuminates the methylation architecture to asthma risk across tissues
Zhongting Huang, Yuxin Liu, Fuqiang Cai, Jijun Zhu, Shenghan Wang, Pan Li, Shunjie Zhang, Zhijian Song, Weixin Liu, Huayong Liu, Junfang Chen · 2026
Read Pathway-level epigenetic modeling illuminates the methylation architecture to asthma risk across tissues by Zhongting Huang, Yuxin Liu, Fuqiang Cai, Jijun Zhu, Shenghan Wang, Pan Li, Shunjie Zhang, Zhijian Song, Weixin Liu, Huayong Liu, Junfang Chen (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13528033.txt.
Description
Zhongting Huang and ten colleagues build a pathway-level model of DNA methylation for asthma in a 2026 study. Single methylation sites are hard to interpret. This team grouped sites into biological pathways instead. Data came from 908 people across one training group and three check groups. A classifier learned from pathway scores, and a method called SHAP ranked each pathway's weight.
The model sorted asthma well in two airway tissue groups. It did moderately well in blood samples. Top pathways involved amino acid use, airway development, and nerve-immune signaling. Some pathways acted through eosinophil cells and nitric oxide inflammation. Two pathways acted directly, bypassing those middle steps. The authors say pathway scores tie severity to biology in a readable way. That may guide more targeted asthma research.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Zhongting Huang, Yuxin Liu, Fuqiang Cai, Jijun Zhu, Shenghan Wang, Pan Li, Shunjie Zhang, Zhijian Song, Weixin Liu, Huayong Liu, Junfang Chen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57149 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |