Background
The aim of this study was to identify potential therapeutic target genes for breast cancer (BC) by the investigation of gene expression changes after ionizing radiation (IR) in BC cells. Gene expression profile GSE21748, including BC cell line MCF-7 samples at different time points after IR treatment, were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in different time points following IR compared with cell samples before IR, respectively. Gene ontology functions and The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways of the overlapping DEGs were enriched using DAVID. Transcription factor (TFs)-encoding genes were identified from the overlapping DEGs, followed by construction of transcriptional regulatory network and co-expression network.
Results
A total of 864 overlapping DEGs were identified, which were significantly enriched in regulation of cell proliferation and apoptosis, and cell cycle process. We found that
FOXD1
,
STAT6
,
XBP1
,
STAT2
,
LMO2
,
TFAP4
,
STAT3
,
STAT1
were hub nodes in the transcriptional regulatory network of the overlapping DEGs. The co-expression network of target genes regulated by
STAT3
,
STAT1
,
STAT6
and
STAT2
included some key genes such as
BCL2L1
.
Conclusion
STAT1
,
STAT2
,
STAT3
,
STAT6
,
XBP1
,
BCL2L1
,
CYB5D2
,
ESCO2
, and
PARP2
were significantly affected by IR and they may be used as therapeutic gene targets in the treatment of BC.