Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder
with a strong genetic component. This research work aims to identify key
genes associated with ASD using a hybrid deep learning approach To
identify influential/key genes associated with ASD, a protein-protein
interaction (PPI) network is constructed, and a Graph Convolutional
Network (GCN), a deep learning method, is employed. The GCN extracts
features from the network structure based on gene interactions.
Subsequently, Logistic Regression (LR) leverages these features to
classify genes into influential and non-influential categories. The LR
is chosen for its effectiveness in binary classification and ability to
reveal feature importance, providing valuable insights into the
underlying genetic mechanisms of ASD. Additionally, a simulation using
the Susceptible-Infected (SI) model is conducted to calculate the
infection ability of influential genes. This simulation demonstrates the
higher infection ability of the genes identified by the proposed method,
highlighting its effectiveness in pinpointing key genetic factors
associated with ASD. Also, the result compared with existing centrality
methods. The proposed method performs better to identify key genes
involve in ASD. Our proposed method outperforms traditional measures in
identifying key genes in the network, offering potential applications
for identifying biomarkers. This innovative approach aligns with
advancements in therapeutic and diagnostic systems, healthcare
information systems, and neural engineering, providing a robust
framework for future ASD research and potential applications in other
neurodevelopmental disorders.