Systems biomedicine of primary and metastatic colorectal cancer reveals potential therapeutic targets

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Patient survival at the time of diagnosis depends largely on the stage of the tumor. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms promoting cancer progression from early stages to high-grade stages is essential for therapeutic approaches. In the present study, we conducted transcriptomic data analysis employing a systems biology method to identify potential molecular targets for colorectal cancer treatment. These targets went under investigation one by one. We proposed some genes that their expression induction or suppression alone or in combination with each other would inhibit tumor progression or metastasis based on their biological activity. They are involved in cell proliferation, energy production under hypoxic conditions, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis.Employing a network analysis viewpoint, some genes were discovered that has not been reported noticeably in any kind of cancer so far. As a result, they might have some roles in progression of colorectal cancer.

Identification of potential biomarkers associated with pathogenesis of primary prostate cancer based on meta-analysis approaches

“…Then, a distance score, Dj, for each node in the PPI network was calculated. Dj is the average of the shortest paths from all the noncore genes to reach the node j subtracted from the average of the shortest paths from the core genes to reach the node j normalized by the average of the all shortest paths to reach the node j from the whole network (22).…”