Explainable AI model reveals disease-related mechanisms in single-cell RNA-seq data

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Usman, Mohammad, Varea, Olga, Radeva, Petia, Canals, Josep, Abante, Jordi, Ortiz, Daniel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Usman, Mohammad
Varea, Olga
Radeva, Petia
Canals, Josep
Abante, Jordi
Ortiz, Daniel
author_facet Usman, Mohammad
Varea, Olga
Radeva, Petia
Canals, Josep
Abante, Jordi
Ortiz, Daniel
contents Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are complex and lack effective treatment due to their poorly understood mechanism. The increasingly used data analysis from Single nucleus RNA Sequencing (snRNA-seq) allows to explore transcriptomic events at a single cell level, yet face challenges in interpreting the mechanisms underlying a disease. On the other hand, Neural Network (NN) models can handle complex data to offer insights but can be seen as black boxes with poor interpretability. In this context, explainable AI (XAI) emerges as a solution that could help to understand disease-associated mechanisms when combined with efficient NN models. However, limited research explores XAI in single-cell data. In this work, we implement a method for identifying disease-related genes and the mechanistic explanation of disease progression based on NN model combined with SHAP. We analyze available Huntington's disease (HD) data to identify both HD-altered genes and mechanisms by adding Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) comparing two methods, differential gene expression analysis (DGE) and NN combined with SHAP approach. Our results show that DGE and SHAP approaches offer both common and differential sets of altered genes and pathways, reinforcing the usefulness of XAI methods for a broader perspective of disease.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_03923
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Explainable AI model reveals disease-related mechanisms in single-cell RNA-seq data
Usman, Mohammad
Varea, Olga
Radeva, Petia
Canals, Josep
Abante, Jordi
Ortiz, Daniel
Genomics
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are complex and lack effective treatment due to their poorly understood mechanism. The increasingly used data analysis from Single nucleus RNA Sequencing (snRNA-seq) allows to explore transcriptomic events at a single cell level, yet face challenges in interpreting the mechanisms underlying a disease. On the other hand, Neural Network (NN) models can handle complex data to offer insights but can be seen as black boxes with poor interpretability. In this context, explainable AI (XAI) emerges as a solution that could help to understand disease-associated mechanisms when combined with efficient NN models. However, limited research explores XAI in single-cell data. In this work, we implement a method for identifying disease-related genes and the mechanistic explanation of disease progression based on NN model combined with SHAP. We analyze available Huntington's disease (HD) data to identify both HD-altered genes and mechanisms by adding Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) comparing two methods, differential gene expression analysis (DGE) and NN combined with SHAP approach. Our results show that DGE and SHAP approaches offer both common and differential sets of altered genes and pathways, reinforcing the usefulness of XAI methods for a broader perspective of disease.
title Explainable AI model reveals disease-related mechanisms in single-cell RNA-seq data
topic Genomics
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.03923