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Halabi R, Dakroub F, Haider MZ, Patel S, Amhaz NA, Reslan MA, Eid AH, Mechref Y, Darwiche N, Kobeissy F, Omeis I, Shaito AA. Unveiling a Biomarker Signature of Meningioma: The Need for a Panel of Genomic, Epigenetic, Proteomic, and RNA Biomarkers to Advance Diagnosis and Prognosis. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:5339. [PMID: 38001599 PMCID: PMC10670806 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15225339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2023] [Revised: 11/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Meningiomas are the most prevalent primary intracranial tumors. The majority are benign but can undergo dedifferentiation into advanced grades classified by World Health Organization (WHO) into Grades 1 to 3. Meningiomas' tremendous variability in tumor behavior and slow growth rates complicate their diagnosis and treatment. A deeper comprehension of the molecular pathways and cellular microenvironment factors implicated in meningioma survival and pathology is needed. This review summarizes the known genetic and epigenetic aberrations involved in meningiomas, with a focus on neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) and non-NF2 mutations. Novel potential biomarkers for meningioma diagnosis and prognosis are also discussed, including epigenetic-, RNA-, metabolomics-, and protein-based markers. Finally, the landscape of available meningioma-specific animal models is overviewed. Use of these animal models can enable planning of adjuvant treatment, potentially assisting in pre-operative and post-operative decision making. Discovery of novel biomarkers will allow, in combination with WHO grading, more precise meningioma grading, including meningioma identification, subtype determination, and prediction of metastasis, recurrence, and response to therapy. Moreover, these biomarkers may be exploited in the development of personalized targeted therapies that can distinguish between the 15 diverse meningioma subtypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reem Halabi
- Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Lebanese International University, Beirut 1105, Lebanon;
| | - Fatima Dakroub
- Department of Experimental Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107, Lebanon;
| | - Mohammad Z. Haider
- Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar; (M.Z.H.); (A.H.E.)
| | - Stuti Patel
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32601, USA; (S.P.); (N.A.A.)
| | - Nayef A. Amhaz
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32601, USA; (S.P.); (N.A.A.)
| | - Mohammad A. Reslan
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107, Lebanon; (M.A.R.); (N.D.); (F.K.)
| | - Ali H. Eid
- Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar; (M.Z.H.); (A.H.E.)
| | - Yehia Mechref
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA;
| | - Nadine Darwiche
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107, Lebanon; (M.A.R.); (N.D.); (F.K.)
| | - Firas Kobeissy
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107, Lebanon; (M.A.R.); (N.D.); (F.K.)
- Department of Neurobiology, Center for Neurotrauma, Multiomics & Biomarkers (CNMB), Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30310, USA
| | - Ibrahim Omeis
- Hammoud Hospital University Medical Center, Saida 652, Lebanon
- Division of Neurosurgery, Penn Medicine, Lancaster General Health, Lancaster, PA 17601, USA
| | - Abdullah A. Shaito
- Biomedical Research Center, College of Medicine, and Department of Biomedical Sciences at College of Health Sciences, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar
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Ochoa S, Hernández-Lemus E. Molecular mechanisms of multi-omic regulation in breast cancer. Front Oncol 2023; 13:1148861. [PMID: 37564937 PMCID: PMC10411627 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1148861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Breast cancer is a complex disease that is influenced by the concurrent influence of multiple genetic and environmental factors. Recent advances in genomics and other high throughput biomolecular techniques (-omics) have provided numerous insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying breast cancer development and progression. A number of these mechanisms involve multiple layers of regulation. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the role of multiple omics in the regulation of breast cancer, including the effects of DNA methylation, non-coding RNA, and other epigenomic changes. We comment on how integrating such diverse mechanisms is envisioned as key to a more comprehensive understanding of breast carcinogenesis and cancer biology with relevance to prognostics, diagnostics and therapeutics. We also discuss the potential clinical implications of these findings and highlight areas for future research. Overall, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of multi-omic regulation in breast cancer is rapidly increasing and has the potential to inform the development of novel therapeutic approaches for this disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soledad Ochoa
- Computational Genomics Division, National Institute of Genomic Medicine, Mexico City, Mexico
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Enrique Hernández-Lemus
- Computational Genomics Division, National Institute of Genomic Medicine, Mexico City, Mexico
- Center for Complexity Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
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Zhan X, Liu Y, Jannu AJ, Huang S, Ye B, Wei W, Pandya PH, Ye X, Pollok KE, Renbarger JL, Huang K, Zhang J. Identify potential driver genes for PAX-FOXO1 fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma through frequent gene co-expression network mining. Front Oncol 2023; 13:1080989. [PMID: 36793601 PMCID: PMC9924292 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1080989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 01/12/2023] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a soft tissue sarcoma usually originated from skeletal muscle. Currently, RMS classification based on PAX-FOXO1 fusion is widely adopted. However, compared to relatively clear understanding of the tumorigenesis in the fusion-positive RMS, little is known for that in fusion-negative RMS (FN-RMS). Methods We explored the molecular mechanisms and the driver genes of FN-RMS through frequent gene co-expression network mining (fGCN), differential copy number (CN) and differential expression analyses on multiple RMS transcriptomic datasets. Results We obtained 50 fGCN modules, among which five are differentially expressed between different fusion status. A closer look showed 23% of Module 2 genes are concentrated on several cytobands of chromosome 8. Upstream regulators such as MYC, YAP1, TWIST1 were identified for the fGCN modules. Using in a separate dataset we confirmed that, comparing to FP-RMS, 59 Module 2 genes show consistent CN amplification and mRNA overexpression, among which 28 are on the identified chr8 cytobands. Such CN amplification and nearby MYC (also resides on one of the above cytobands) and other upstream regulators (YAP1, TWIST1) may work together to drive FN-RMS tumorigenesis and progression. Up to 43.1% downstream targets of Yap1 and 45.8% of the targets of Myc are differentially expressed in FN-RMS vs. normal comparisons, which also confirmed the driving force of these regulators. Discussion We discovered that copy number amplification of specific cytobands on chr8 and the upstream regulators MYC, YAP1 and TWIST1 work together to affect the downstream gene co-expression and promote FN-RMS tumorigenesis and progression. Our findings provide new insights for FN-RMS tumorigenesis and offer promising targets for precision therapy. Experimental investigation about the functions of identified potential drivers in FN-RMS are in progress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaohui Zhan
- Department of Bioinformatics, School of Basic Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Yusong Liu
- College of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China
| | - Asha Jacob Jannu
- Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, Indiana University, School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | | | - Bo Ye
- Department of Bioinformatics, School of Basic Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Wei Wei
- Department of Bioinformatics, School of Basic Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Pankita H Pandya
- Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University, School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Xiufen Ye
- College of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China
| | - Karen E Pollok
- Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University, School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Jamie L Renbarger
- Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University, School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Kun Huang
- Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, Indiana University, School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Jie Zhang
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University, School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
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Ghatak S, Satapathy SR, Sjölander A. DNA Methylation and Gene Expression of the Cysteinyl Leukotriene Receptors as a Prognostic and Metastatic Factor for Colorectal Cancer Patients. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24043409. [PMID: 36834820 PMCID: PMC9963074 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24043409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2023] [Revised: 01/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/31/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC), one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the western world, is the third most common cancer for both men and women. As a heterogeneous disease, colon cancer (CC) is caused by both genetic and epigenetic changes. The prognosis for CRC is affected by a variety of features, including late diagnosis, lymph node and distant metastasis. The cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLT), as leukotriene D4 and C4 (LTD4 and LTC4), are synthesized from arachidonic acid via the 5-lipoxygenase pathway, and play an important role in several types of diseases such as inflammation and cancer. Their effects are mediated via the two main G-protein-coupled receptors, CysLT1R and CysLT2R. Multiple studies from our group observed a significant increase in CysLT1R expression in the poor prognosis group, whereas CysLT2R expression was higher in the good prognosis group of CRC patients. Here, we systematically explored and established the role of the CysLTRs, cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1(CYSLTR1) and cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 2 (CYSLTR2) gene expression and methylation in the progression and metastasis of CRC using three unique in silico cohorts and one clinical CRC cohort. Primary tumor tissues showed significant CYSLTR1 upregulation compared with matched normal tissues, whereas it was the opposite for the CYSLTR2. Univariate Cox proportional-hazards (CoxPH) analysis yielded a high expression of CYSLTR1 and accurately predicted high-risk patients in terms of overall survival (OS; hazard ratio (HR) = 1.87, p = 0.03) and disease-free survival [DFS] Hazard ratio [HR] = 1.54, p = 0.05). Hypomethylation of the CYSLTR1 gene and hypermethylation of the CYSLTR2 gene were found in CRC patients. The M values of the CpG probes for CYSLTR1 are significantly lower in primary tumor and metastasis samples than in matched normal samples, but those for CYSLTR2 are significantly higher. The differentially upregulated genes between tumor and metastatic samples were uniformly expressed in the high-CYSLTR1 group. Two epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, E-cadherin (CDH1) and vimentin (VIM) were significantly downregulated and upregulated in the high-CYSLTR1 group, respectively, but the result was opposite to that of CYSLTR2 expression in CRC. CDH1 expression was high in patients with less methylated CYSLTR1 but low in those with more methylated CYSLTR2. The EMT-associated observations were also validated in CC SW620 cell-derived colonospheres, which showed decreased E-cadherin expression in the LTD4 stimulated cells, but not in the CysLT1R knockdown SW620 cells. The methylation profiles of the CpG probes for CysLTRs significantly predicted lymph node (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.76, p < 0.0001) and distant (AUC = 0.83, p < 0.0001) metastasis. Intriguingly, the CpG probes cg26848126 (HR = 1.51, p = 0.03) for CYSLTR1, and cg16299590 (HR = 2.14, p = 0.03) for CYSLTR2 significantly predicted poor prognosis in terms of OS, whereas the CpG probe cg16886259 for CYSLTR2 significantly predicts a poor prognosis group in terms of DFS (HR = 2.88, p = 0.03). The CYSLTR1 and CYSLTR2 gene expression and methylation results were successfully validated in a CC patient cohort. In this study, we have demonstrated that CysLTRs' methylation and gene expression profile are associated with the progression, prognosis, and metastasis of CRC, which might be used for the assessment of high-risk CRC patients after validating the result in a larger CRC cohort.
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Ochoa S, Hernández-Lemus E. Functional impact of multi-omic interactions in breast cancer subtypes. Front Genet 2023; 13:1078609. [PMID: 36685900 PMCID: PMC9850112 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2022.1078609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Multi-omic approaches are expected to deliver a broader molecular view of cancer. However, the promised mechanistic explanations have not quite settled yet. Here, we propose a theoretical and computational analysis framework to semi-automatically produce network models of the regulatory constraints influencing a biological function. This way, we identified functions significantly enriched on the analyzed omics and described associated features, for each of the four breast cancer molecular subtypes. For instance, we identified functions sustaining over-representation of invasion-related processes in the basal subtype and DNA modification processes in the normal tissue. We found limited overlap on the omics-associated functions between subtypes; however, a startling feature intersection within subtype functions also emerged. The examples presented highlight new, potentially regulatory features, with sound biological reasons to expect a connection with the functions. Multi-omic regulatory networks thus constitute reliable models of the way omics are connected, demonstrating a capability for systematic generation of mechanistic hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soledad Ochoa
- Computational Genomics Division, National Institute of Genomic Medicine, Mexico City, Mexico,Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Enrique Hernández-Lemus
- Computational Genomics Division, National Institute of Genomic Medicine, Mexico City, Mexico,Center for Complexity Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico,*Correspondence: Enrique Hernández-Lemus,
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Johnston AD, Ross JP, Ma C, Fung KYC, Locke WJ. Epigenetic liquid biopsies for minimal residual disease, what's around the corner? Front Oncol 2023; 13:1103797. [PMID: 37081990 PMCID: PMC10110851 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1103797] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2022] [Accepted: 03/23/2023] [Indexed: 04/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Liquid biopsy assays for minimal residual disease (MRD) are used to monitor and inform oncological treatment and predict the risk of relapse in cancer patients. To-date, most MRD assay development has focused on targeting somatic mutations. However, epigenetic changes are more frequent and universal than genetic alterations in cancer and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) retains much of these changes. Here, we review the epigenetic signals that can be used to detect MRD, including DNA methylation alterations and fragmentation patterns that differentiate ctDNA from noncancerous circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA). We then summarize the current state of MRD monitoring; highlight the advantages of epigenetics over genetics-based approaches; and discuss the emerging paradigm of assaying both genetic and epigenetic targets to monitor treatment response, detect disease recurrence, and inform adjuvant therapy.
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Janke F, Angeles AK, Riediger AL, Bauer S, Reck M, Stenzinger A, Schneider MA, Muley T, Thomas M, Christopoulos P, Sültmann H. Longitudinal monitoring of cell-free DNA methylation in ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer patients. Clin Epigenetics 2022; 14:163. [PMID: 36461127 PMCID: PMC9719130 DOI: 10.1186/s13148-022-01387-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND DNA methylation (5-mC) signals in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) of cancer patients represent promising biomarkers for minimally invasive tumor detection. The high abundance of cancer-associated 5-mC alterations permits parallel and highly sensitive assessment of multiple 5-mC biomarkers. Here, we performed genome-wide 5-mC profiling in the plasma of metastatic ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy. We established a strategy to identify ALK-specific 5-mC changes from cfDNA and demonstrated the suitability of the identified markers for cancer detection, prognosis, and therapy monitoring. METHODS Longitudinal plasma samples (n = 79) of 21 ALK-positive NSCLC patients and 13 healthy donors were collected alongside 15 ALK-positive tumor tissue and 10 healthy lung tissue specimens. All plasma and tissue samples were analyzed by cell-free DNA methylation immunoprecipitation sequencing to generate genome-wide 5-mC profiles. Information on genomic alterations (i.e., somatic mutations/fusions and copy number alterations) determined in matched plasma samples was available from previous studies. RESULTS We devised a strategy that identified tumor-specific 5-mC biomarkers by reducing 5-mC background signals derived from hematopoietic cells. This was followed by differential methylation analysis (cases vs. controls) and biomarker validation using 5-mC profiles of ALK-positive tumor tissues. The resulting 245 differentially methylated regions were enriched for lung adenocarcinoma-specific 5-mC patterns in TCGA data and indicated transcriptional repression of several genes described to be silenced in NSCLC (e.g., PCDH10, TBX2, CDO1, and HOXA9). Additionally, 5-mC-based tumor DNA (5-mC score) was highly correlated with other genomic alterations in cell-free DNA (Spearman, ρ > 0.6), while samples with high 5-mC scores showed significantly shorter overall survival (log-rank p = 0.025). Longitudinal 5-mC scores reflected radiologic disease assessments and were significantly elevated at disease progression compared to the therapy start (p = 0.0023). In 7 out of 8 instances, rising 5-mC scores preceded imaging-based evaluation of disease progression. CONCLUSION We demonstrated a strategy to identify 5-mC biomarkers from the plasma of cancer patients and integrated them into a quantitative measure of cancer-associated 5-mC alterations. Using longitudinal plasma samples of ALK-positive NSCLC patients, we highlighted the suitability of cfDNA methylation for prognosis and therapy monitoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Janke
- grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Division of Cancer Genome Research, German Cancer Research Center, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.452624.3German Center for Lung Research (DZL), TLRC Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Arlou Kristina Angeles
- grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Division of Cancer Genome Research, German Cancer Research Center, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.452624.3German Center for Lung Research (DZL), TLRC Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Anja Lisa Riediger
- grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Division of Cancer Genome Research, German Cancer Research Center, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.7497.d0000 0004 0492 0584Helmholtz Young Investigator Group, Multiparametric Methods for Early Detection of Prostate Cancer, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Department of Urology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.7700.00000 0001 2190 4373Faculty of Biosciences, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Simone Bauer
- grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Division of Cancer Genome Research, German Cancer Research Center, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Martin Reck
- grid.452624.3Lung Clinic Grosshansdorf, Airway Research Center North, German Center for Lung Research, Grosshansdorf, Germany
| | - Albrecht Stenzinger
- grid.452624.3German Center for Lung Research (DZL), TLRC Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Institute of Pathology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.7497.d0000 0004 0492 0584German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Marc A. Schneider
- grid.452624.3German Center for Lung Research (DZL), TLRC Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Translational Research Unit, Thoraxklinik at University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Thomas Muley
- grid.452624.3German Center for Lung Research (DZL), TLRC Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Translational Research Unit, Thoraxklinik at University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Michael Thomas
- grid.452624.3German Center for Lung Research (DZL), TLRC Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Department of Oncology, Thoraxklinik and National Center for Tumor Disease (NCT) at Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Petros Christopoulos
- grid.452624.3German Center for Lung Research (DZL), TLRC Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Department of Oncology, Thoraxklinik and National Center for Tumor Disease (NCT) at Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Holger Sültmann
- grid.5253.10000 0001 0328 4908Division of Cancer Genome Research, German Cancer Research Center, National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.452624.3German Center for Lung Research (DZL), TLRC Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany ,grid.7497.d0000 0004 0492 0584German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
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Association between cancer genes and germ layer specificity. MEDICAL ONCOLOGY (NORTHWOOD, LONDON, ENGLAND) 2022; 39:218. [PMID: 36175592 DOI: 10.1007/s12032-022-01823-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2022] [Accepted: 08/14/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Cancer signaling pathways defining cell fates are related to differentiation. During the developmental process, three germ layers (endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm) are formed during embryonic development that differentiate into organs via the epigenetic regulation of specific genes. To examine the relationship, the specificities of cancer gene mutations that depend on the germ layers are studied. The major organs affected by cancer were determined based on statistics from the National Cancer Information Center of Korea, and were grouped according to their germ layer origins. Then, the gene mutation frequencies were evaluated to identify any bias based on the differentiation group using the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) database. The chi-square test showed that the p-value of 152 of 166 genes was less than 0.05, and 151 genes showed p-values of less than 0.05 even after adjusting for the false discovery rate (FDR). The germ layer-specific genes were evaluated using visualization based on basic statistics, and the results matched the top ranking genes depending on organs in the COSMIC database.The current study confirmed the germ layer specificity of major cancer genes. The germ layer specificity of mutated driver genes is possibly important in cancer treatments because each mutated gene may react differently depending on the germ layer of origin. By understanding the mechanism of gene mutation in the development and progression of cancer in the context of cell-fate pathways, a more effective therapeutic strategy for cancer can be established.
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Hu J, Zhou S, Guo W. Construction of the coexpression network involved in the pathogenesis of thyroid eye disease via bioinformatics analysis. Hum Genomics 2022; 16:38. [PMID: 36076300 PMCID: PMC9461120 DOI: 10.1186/s40246-022-00412-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Thyroid eye disease (TED) is the most common orbital pathology that occurs in up to 50% of patients with Graves’ disease. Herein, we aimed at discovering the possible hub genes and pathways involved in TED based on bioinformatical approaches. Results The GSE105149 and GSE58331 datasets were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and merged for identifying TED-associated modules by weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) and local maximal quasi-clique merger (lmQCM) analysis. EdgeR was run to screen differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Transcription factor (TF), microRNA (miR) and drug prediction analyses were performed using ToppGene suite. Function enrichment analysis was used to investigate the biological function of genes. Protein–protein interaction (PPI) analysis was performed based on the intersection between the list of genes obtained by WGCNA, lmQCM and DEGs, and hub genes were identified using the MCODE plugin. Based on the overlap of 497 genes retrieved from the different approaches, a robust TED coexpression network was constructed and 11 genes (ATP6V1A, PTGES3, PSMD12, PSMA4, METAP2, DNAJA1, PSMA1, UBQLN1, CCT2, VBP1 and NAA50) were identified as hub genes. Key TFs regulating genes in the TED-associated coexpression network, including NFRKB, ZNF711, ZNF407 and MORC2, and miRs including hsa-miR-144, hsa-miR-3662, hsa-miR-12136 and hsa-miR-3646, were identified. Genes in the coexpression network were enriched in the biological processes including proteasomal protein catabolic process and proteasome-mediated ubiquitin-dependent protein catabolic process and the pathways of endocytosis and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. Drugs perturbing genes in the coexpression network were also predicted and included enzyme inhibitors, chlorodiphenyl and finasteride. Conclusions For the first time, TED-associated coexpression network was constructed and key genes and their functions, as well as TFs, miRs and drugs, were predicted. The results of the present work may be relevant in the treatment and diagnosis of TED and may boost molecular studies regarding TED. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40246-022-00412-0.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinxing Hu
- Department of Endocrinology, HwaMei Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 41 Northwest Street Zhejiang Province, Ningbo, 315010, China.,Ningbo Institute of Life and Health Industry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315010, China
| | - Shan Zhou
- Department of Endocrinology, HwaMei Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 41 Northwest Street Zhejiang Province, Ningbo, 315010, China. .,Ningbo Institute of Life and Health Industry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315010, China.
| | - Weiying Guo
- Department of Endocrinology, HwaMei Hospital, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 41 Northwest Street Zhejiang Province, Ningbo, 315010, China.,Ningbo Institute of Life and Health Industry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315010, China
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Qian S, Lin S, Xu X, Bai H, Yeerken A, Ying X, Li Z, Fei X, Yang J, Tang M, Wang J, Jin M, Chen K. Hypermethylation of tumor suppressor lncRNA MEF2C-AS1 frequently happened in patients at all stages of colorectal carcinogenesis. Clin Epigenetics 2022; 14:111. [PMID: 36064442 PMCID: PMC9446566 DOI: 10.1186/s13148-022-01328-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background The novel long noncoding RNA MEF2C-AS1 has been identified to play suppressor roles during tumorigenesis. DNA methylation has a regulatory effect on gene expression in cancer initiation and progression. However, the methylation status of MEF2C-AS1 and its role in colorectal cancer (CRC) development remain unclear. Methods The expression and methylation levels of MEF2C-AS1 were systematically analyzed among 31 cancers with available qualified data in GEPIA and UCSC Xena databases. Then, the MEF2C-AS1 methylation status was firstly examined among 12 CRCs by Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip in in-house step 1 and further quantified among 48 CRCs by the MassARRAY method in in-house step 2. Subsequently, its methylation and expression levels were quantified among 81 non-advanced adenomas (NAAs), 81 advanced adenomas (AAs), and 286 CRCs using the MassARRAY method, and among 34 NAAs, 45 AAs, and 75 CRCs by qRT-PCR, in in-house step 3, respectively. The effect of MEF2C-AS1 methylation on CRC survival was analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method. Additionally, in vitro cell proliferation, migration and invasion assays, and bioinformatics analysis were performed to explore the role of MEF2C-AS1 in colorectal carcinogenesis. Results Lower expression and higher methylation of MEF2C-AS1 were found in CRC by online databases. In the comparisons of lesion tissues with adjacent normal tissues, MEF2C-AS1 hypermethylation of each individual site and mean level was found among CRC patients in in-house step 1 and step 2, more meaningfully, among NAA patients, AA patients, and CRC patients at all stages during colorectal carcinogenesis in in-house step 3 (all p < 0.05). Further comparisons demonstrated significant differences between CRC and NAA (p = 0.025), AA and NAA (p = 0.020). Moreover, MEF2C-AS1 hypermethylation was associated with poorer disease-specific survival of CRC patients (p = 0.044). In addition, hypermethylation and lower expression of MEF2C-AS1 were verified in RKO cells, and the MEF2C-AS1 overexpression significantly suppressed RKO cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Conclusions The findings reveal that MEF2C-AS1 hypermethylation might be an early driven event during colorectal carcinogenesis. It might serve as a promising prognostic biomarker for CRC survival. Our study also indicates the potential tumor-suppressing role of MEF2C-AS1 in CRC. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13148-022-01328-1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sangni Qian
- Department of Public Health, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Shujuan Lin
- Department of Public Health, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Xin Xu
- Department of Public Health, Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Hao Bai
- Department of Public Health, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Aibuta Yeerken
- Department of Public Health, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Xiaojiang Ying
- Department of Anorectal Surgery, Shaoxing People's Hospital, Shaoxing, 312000, China
| | - Zhenjun Li
- Department of Anorectal Surgery, Shaoxing People's Hospital, Shaoxing, 312000, China
| | - Xinglin Fei
- Jiashan Institute of Cancer Prevention and Treatment, Jiaxing, 314100, China
| | - Jinhua Yang
- Jiashan Institute of Cancer Prevention and Treatment, Jiaxing, 314100, China
| | - Mengling Tang
- Department of Public Health, Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Jianbing Wang
- Department of Public Health, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health of the Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Mingjuan Jin
- Department of Public Health, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
| | - Kun Chen
- Department of Public Health, Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
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11
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Zhang S, Chen K, Zhao Z, Zhang X, Xu L, Liu T, Yu S. Lower Expression of GBP2 Associated With Less Immune Cell Infiltration and Poor Prognosis in Skin Cutaneous Melanoma (SKCM). J Immunother 2022; 45:274-283. [PMID: 35543550 DOI: 10.1097/cji.0000000000000421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Guanylate binding protein 2 (GBP2) could bind to guanine nucleotides (GMP, GDP, and GTP) and exhibits antiviral activity against influenza virus through the innate immune response. Some researchers have demonstrated that the value of GBP2 in predicting the prognosis of multiple cancers and the complex correlation with immune response. However, the correlation of GBP2 to prognosis and immune cell infiltration level were unknown in skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM). The GBP2 expression in multiple cancers were evaluated through Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) and Oncomine. We also evaluated the influence of GBP2 on overall survival in multiple caners through GEPIA, TIMER, and tissue microarray. The correlation between GBP2 expression level and immune cell or gene markers of immune infiltration level was explored on TIMER and GEPIA. Gene set enrichment analysis was performed using the TCGA dataset. The GBP2 expression level represented a significant reduction and the GBP2 expression was lower compared with the SKCM-Metastasis with P<0.01. Lower GBP2 expression was significantly correlated with the poor overall survival of SKCM patients. Simultaneously, higher GBP2 expression predicted the better SKCM-free survival with P=0.019. GBP2 expression was positively correlated with the infiltration cells of B-cell, CD8+ T-cell, CD4+ T-cell, macrophage, neutrophil, and dendritic cell in SKCM. And there was a significant negative correlation between the expression of GBP2 and DNA methylation in the cBioPortal database (P=3.39e-42). Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that GBP2 was closely correlated with multiple pathways of immune response in cancer. In conclusion, Lower expression of GBP2 associated with less immune cell infiltration and poor prognosis in SKCM and the high promoter methylation of GBP2 represented a promising biomarker for poor prognostication in SKCM.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kun Chen
- State Key Lab of Molecular Oncology and Immunology Department, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
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12
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Yousefi PD, Suderman M, Langdon R, Whitehurst O, Davey Smith G, Relton CL. DNA methylation-based predictors of health: applications and statistical considerations. Nat Rev Genet 2022; 23:369-383. [PMID: 35304597 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-022-00465-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 38.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
DNA methylation data have become a valuable source of information for biomarker development, because, unlike static genetic risk estimates, DNA methylation varies dynamically in relation to diverse exogenous and endogenous factors, including environmental risk factors and complex disease pathology. Reliable methods for genome-wide measurement at scale have led to the proliferation of epigenome-wide association studies and subsequently to the development of DNA methylation-based predictors across a wide range of health-related applications, from the identification of risk factors or exposures, such as age and smoking, to early detection of disease or progression in cancer, cardiovascular and neurological disease. This Review evaluates the progress of existing DNA methylation-based predictors, including the contribution of machine learning techniques, and assesses the uptake of key statistical best practices needed to ensure their reliable performance, such as data-driven feature selection, elimination of data leakage in performance estimates and use of generalizable, adequately powered training samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul D Yousefi
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Matthew Suderman
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Ryan Langdon
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Oliver Whitehurst
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - George Davey Smith
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Caroline L Relton
- Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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13
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Synergy between the Levels of Methylation of microRNA Gene Sets in Primary Tumors and Metastases of Ovarian Cancer Patients. Bull Exp Biol Med 2022; 173:87-91. [PMID: 35622253 DOI: 10.1007/s10517-022-05499-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2021] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
We studied the correlations between the levels of methylation of a group of 21 microRNA genes in 99 primary tumors and 29 macroscopic peritoneal metastases of ovarian cancer. Analysis of the level of methylation by quantitative methylation-specific PCR showed that co-methylation was detected for 13 pairs of microRNA genes in primary tumors and for 22 pairs in metastases. Pairs of microRNA genes that have shown significant co-methylation can be involved in common processes and pathways of gene regulation and interaction and can have common target genes. The results are highly significant and pairs of microRNA genes can be proposed as new potential markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of ovarian cancer metastasis.
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14
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Sun S, Dammann J, Lai P, Tian C. Thorough statistical analyses of breast cancer co-methylation patterns. BMC Genom Data 2022; 23:29. [PMID: 35428183 PMCID: PMC9011975 DOI: 10.1186/s12863-022-01046-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers. It is associated with DNA methylation, an epigenetic event with a methyl group added to a cytosine paired with a guanine, i.e., a CG site. The methylation levels of different genes in a genome are correlated in certain ways that affect gene functions. This correlation pattern is known as co-methylation. It is still not clear how different genes co-methylate in the whole genome of breast cancer samples. Previous studies are conducted using relatively small datasets (Illumina 27K data). In this study, we analyze much larger datasets (Illumina 450K data).
Results
Our key findings are summarized below. First, normal samples have more highly correlated, or co-methylated, CG pairs than tumor samples. Both tumor and normal samples have more than 93% positive co-methylation, but normal samples have significantly more negatively correlated CG sites than tumor samples (6.6% vs. 2.8%). Second, both tumor and normal samples have about 94% of co-methylated CG pairs on different chromosomes, but normal samples have 470 million more CG pairs. Highly co-methylated pairs on the same chromosome tend to be close to each other. Third, a small proportion of CG sites’ co-methylation patterns change dramatically from normal to tumor. The percentage of differentially methylated (DM) sites among them is larger than the overall DM rate. Fourth, certain CG sites are highly correlated with many CG sites. The top 100 of such super-connector CG sites in tumor and normal samples have no overlaps. Fifth, both highly changing sites and super-connector sites’ locations are significantly different from the genome-wide CG sites’ locations. Sixth, chromosome X co-methylation patterns are very different from other chromosomes. Finally, the network analyses of genes associated with several sets of co-methylated CG sites identified above show that tumor and normal samples have different patterns.
Conclusions
Our findings will provide researchers with a new understanding of co-methylation patterns in breast cancer. Our ability to thoroughly analyze co-methylation of large datasets will allow researchers to study relationships and associations between different genes in breast cancer.
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15
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Robin AM, Pawloski JA, Snyder JM, Walbert T, Rogers L, Mikkelsen T, Noushmehr H, Lee I, Rock J, Kalkanis SN, Rosenblum ML. Neurosurgery's Impact on Neuro-Oncology—“Can We Do Better?”—Lessons Learned Over 50 Years. Neurosurgery 2022; 68:17-26. [DOI: 10.1227/neu.0000000000001879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Accepted: 01/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
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16
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Qiu Z, Wang Q, Liu L, Li G, Hao Y, Ning S, Zhang L, Zhang X, Chen Y, Wu J, Wang X, Yang S, Lin Y, Xu S. Riddle of the Sphinx: Emerging Role of Transfer RNAs in Human Cancer. Front Pharmacol 2021; 12:794986. [PMID: 34975491 PMCID: PMC8714751 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2021.794986] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/10/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The dysregulation of transfer RNA (tRNA) expression contributes to the diversity of proteomics, heterogeneity of cell populations, and instability of the genome, which may be related to human cancer susceptibility. However, the relationship between tRNA dysregulation and cancer susceptibility remains elusive because the landscape of cancer-associated tRNAs has not been portrayed yet. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms of tRNAs involved in tumorigenesis and cancer progression have not been systematically understood. In this review, we detail current knowledge of cancer-related tRNAs and comprehensively summarize the basic characteristics and functions of these tRNAs, with a special focus on their role and involvement in human cancer. This review bridges the gap between tRNAs and cancer and broadens our understanding of their relationship, thus providing new insights and strategies to improve the potential clinical applications of tRNAs for cancer diagnosis and therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhilin Qiu
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Qin Wang
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Lei Liu
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Guozheng Li
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Yi Hao
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Shipeng Ning
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Lei Zhang
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Xin Zhang
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Yihai Chen
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Jiale Wu
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Xinheng Wang
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Shuai Yang
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
| | - Yaoxin Lin
- CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China
- *Correspondence: Yaoxin Lin, ; Shouping Xu,
| | - Shouping Xu
- Department of Breast Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin, China
- *Correspondence: Yaoxin Lin, ; Shouping Xu,
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17
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Liu Y, Ye X, Yu CY, Shao W, Hou J, Feng W, Zhang J, Huang K. TPSC: a module detection method based on topology potential and spectral clustering in weighted networks and its application in gene co-expression module discovery. BMC Bioinformatics 2021; 22:111. [PMID: 34689740 PMCID: PMC8543836 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-021-03964-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2020] [Accepted: 01/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Gene co-expression networks are widely studied in the biomedical field, with algorithms such as WGCNA and lmQCM having been developed to detect co-expressed modules. However, these algorithms have limitations such as insufficient granularity and unbalanced module size, which prevent full acquisition of knowledge from data mining. In addition, it is difficult to incorporate prior knowledge in current co-expression module detection algorithms. RESULTS In this paper, we propose a novel module detection algorithm based on topology potential and spectral clustering algorithm to detect co-expressed modules in gene co-expression networks. By testing on TCGA data, our novel method can provide more complete coverage of genes, more balanced module size and finer granularity than current methods in detecting modules with significant overall survival difference. In addition, the proposed algorithm can identify modules by incorporating prior knowledge. CONCLUSION In summary, we developed a method to obtain as much as possible information from networks with increased input coverage and the ability to detect more size-balanced and granular modules. In addition, our method can integrate data from different sources. Our proposed method performs better than current methods with complete coverage of input genes and finer granularity. Moreover, this method is designed not only for gene co-expression networks but can also be applied to any general fully connected weighted network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yusong Liu
- Collage of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, China.,Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA
| | - Xiufen Ye
- Collage of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, China.
| | - Christina Y Yu
- Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA.,Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA
| | - Wei Shao
- Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA
| | - Jie Hou
- Collage of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, China
| | - Weixing Feng
- Collage of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, China
| | - Jie Zhang
- Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA
| | - Kun Huang
- Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA. .,Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA.
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18
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Pawloski JA, Fadel HA, Huang YW, Lee IY. Genomic Biomarkers of Meningioma: A Focused Review. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms221910222. [PMID: 34638590 PMCID: PMC8508805 DOI: 10.3390/ijms221910222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2021] [Revised: 08/28/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Meningiomas represent a phenotypically and genetically diverse group of tumors which often behave in ways that are not simply explained by their pathologic grade. The genetic landscape of meningiomas has become a target of investigation as tumor genomics have been found to impact tumor location, recurrence risk, and malignant potential. Additionally, targeted therapies are being developed that in the future may provide patients with personalized chemotherapy based on the genetic aberrations within their tumor. This review focuses on the most common genetic mutations found in meningiomas of all grades, with an emphasis on the impact on tumor location and clinically relevant tumor characteristics. NF-2 and the non-NF-2 family of genetic mutations are summarized in the context of low-grade and high-grade tumors, followed by a comprehensive discussion regarding the genetic and embryologic basis for meningioma location and phenotypic heterogeneity. Finally, targeted therapies based on tumor genomics currently in use and under investigation are reviewed and future avenues for research are suggested. The field of meningioma genomics has broad implications on the way meningiomas will be treated in the future, and is gradually shifting the way clinicians approach this diverse group of tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob A. Pawloski
- Department of Neurosurgery, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI 48202, USA; (H.A.F.); (Y.-W.H.); (I.Y.L.)
- Department of Neurological Surgery, Henry Ford Hospital, 2799 West Grand Blvd, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-313-932-3197
| | - Hassan A. Fadel
- Department of Neurosurgery, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI 48202, USA; (H.A.F.); (Y.-W.H.); (I.Y.L.)
| | - Yi-Wen Huang
- Department of Neurosurgery, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI 48202, USA; (H.A.F.); (Y.-W.H.); (I.Y.L.)
| | - Ian Y. Lee
- Department of Neurosurgery, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI 48202, USA; (H.A.F.); (Y.-W.H.); (I.Y.L.)
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19
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Levy JJ, Chen Y, Azizgolshani N, Petersen CL, Titus AJ, Moen EL, Vaickus LJ, Salas LA, Christensen BC. MethylSPWNet and MethylCapsNet: Biologically Motivated Organization of DNAm Neural Networks, Inspired by Capsule Networks. NPJ Syst Biol Appl 2021; 7:33. [PMID: 34417465 PMCID: PMC8379254 DOI: 10.1038/s41540-021-00193-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 07/01/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
DNA methylation (DNAm) alterations have been heavily implicated in carcinogenesis and the pathophysiology of diseases through upstream regulation of gene expression. DNAm deep-learning approaches are able to capture features associated with aging, cell type, and disease progression, but lack incorporation of prior biological knowledge. Here, we present modular, user-friendly deep-learning methodology and software, MethylCapsNet and MethylSPWNet, that group CpGs into biologically relevant capsules-such as gene promoter context, CpG island relationship, or user-defined groupings-and relate them to diagnostic and prognostic outcomes. We demonstrate these models' utility on 3,897 individuals in the classification of central nervous system (CNS) tumors. MethylCapsNet and MethylSPWNet provide an opportunity to increase DNAm deep-learning analyses' interpretability by enabling a flexible organization of DNAm data into biologically relevant capsules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua J Levy
- Program in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
- Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
- Emerging Diagnostic and Investigative Technologies, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA.
| | - Youdinghuan Chen
- Program in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Nasim Azizgolshani
- Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Curtis L Petersen
- Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
- The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Lebanon, NH, USA
| | - Alexander J Titus
- Department of Life Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Manchester, NH, USA
| | - Erika L Moen
- The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Lebanon, NH, USA
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Louis J Vaickus
- Emerging Diagnostic and Investigative Technologies, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA
| | - Lucas A Salas
- Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Brock C Christensen
- Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
- Department of Molecular and Systems Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
- Department of Community and Family Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA
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Liu G, Liu Z, Sun X, Xia X, Liu Y, Liu L. Pan-Cancer Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Analyses Revealed That Hypermethylation Influences 3D Architecture and Gene Expression Dysregulation in HOXA Locus During Carcinogenesis of Cancers. Front Cell Dev Biol 2021; 9:649168. [PMID: 33816499 PMCID: PMC8012915 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.649168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
DNA methylation dysregulation during carcinogenesis has been widely discussed in recent years. However, the pan-cancer DNA methylation biomarkers and corresponding biological mechanisms were seldom investigated. We identified differentially methylated sites and regions from 5,056 The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) samples across 10 cancer types and then validated the findings using 48 manually annotated datasets consisting of 3,394 samples across nine cancer types from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). All samples’ DNA methylation profile was evaluated with Illumina 450K microarray to narrow down the batch effect. Nine regions were identified as commonly differentially methylated regions across cancers in TCGA and GEO cohorts. Among these regions, a DNA fragment consisting of ∼1,400 bp detected inside the HOXA locus instead of the boundary may relate to the co-expression attenuation of genes inside the locus during carcinogenesis. We further analyzed the 3D DNA interaction profile by the publicly accessible Hi-C database. Consistently, the HOXA locus in normal cell lines compromised isolated topological domains while merging to the domain nearby in cancer cell lines. In conclusion, the dysregulation of the HOXA locus provides a novel insight into pan-cancer carcinogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gang Liu
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhenhao Liu
- Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis, National Health and Family Planning Commission, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.,Shanghai Center for Bioinformation Technology, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaomeng Sun
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaoqiong Xia
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yunhe Liu
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Lei Liu
- Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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21
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Huang Z, Han Z, Wang Resource T, Shao W, Xiang S, Salama P, Rizkalla M, Huang K, Zhang J. TSUNAMI: Translational Bioinformatics Tool Suite for Network Analysis and Mining. GENOMICS, PROTEOMICS & BIOINFORMATICS 2021; 19:1023-1031. [PMID: 33705981 PMCID: PMC9403021 DOI: 10.1016/j.gpb.2019.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2018] [Revised: 04/03/2019] [Accepted: 05/31/2019] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Gene co-expression network (GCN) mining identifies gene modules with highly correlated expression profiles across samples/conditions. It enables researchers to discover latent gene/molecule interactions, identify novel gene functions, and extract molecular features from certain disease/condition groups, thus helping to identify disease biomarkers. However, there lacks an easy-to-use tool package for users to mine GCN modules that are relatively small in size with tightly connected genes that can be convenient for downstream gene set enrichment analysis, as well as modules that may share common members. To address this need, we developed an online GCN mining tool package: TSUNAMI (Tools SUite for Network Analysis and MIning). TSUNAMI incorporates our state-of-the-art lmQCM algorithm to mine GCN modules for both public and user-input data (microarray, RNA-seq, or any other numerical omics data), and then performs downstream gene set enrichment analysis for the identified modules. It has several features and advantages: 1) a user-friendly interface and real-time co-expression network mining through a web server; 2) direct access and search of NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases, as well as user-input gene expression matrices for GCN module mining; 3) multiple co-expression analysis tools to choose from, all of which are highly flexible in regards to parameter selection options; 4) identified GCN modules are summarized to eigengenes, which are convenient for users to check their correlation with other clinical traits; 5) integrated downstream Enrichr enrichment analysis and links to other gene set enrichment tools; and 6) visualization of gene loci by Circos plot in any step of the process. The web service is freely accessible through URL: https://biolearns.medicine.iu.edu/. Source code is available at https://github.com/huangzhii/TSUNAMI/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi Huang
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN 47907, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis IN 46202, USA
| | - Zhi Han
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis IN 46202, USA
| | | | - Wei Shao
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis IN 46202, USA
| | - Shunian Xiang
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis IN 46202, USA
| | - Paul Salama
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis IN 46202, USA
| | - Maher Rizkalla
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis IN 46202, USA
| | - Kun Huang
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis IN 46202, USA.
| | - Jie Zhang
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis IN 46202, USA.
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22
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Bhat S, Kabekkodu SP, Adiga D, Fernandes R, Shukla V, Bhandari P, Pandey D, Sharan K, Satyamoorthy K. ZNF471 modulates EMT and functions as methylation regulated tumor suppressor with diagnostic and prognostic significance in cervical cancer. Cell Biol Toxicol 2021; 37:731-749. [PMID: 33566221 PMCID: PMC8490246 DOI: 10.1007/s10565-021-09582-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2020] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Cervical cancer (CC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death among women in developing countries. However, the underlying mechanisms and molecular targets for therapy remain to be fully understood. We investigated the epigenetic regulation, biological functions, and clinical utility of zinc-finger protein 471 (ZNF471) in CC. Analysis of cervical tissues and five independent public datasets of CC showed significant hypermethylation of the ZNF471 gene promoter. In CC cell lines, promoter DNA methylation was inversely correlated with ZNF471 expression. The sensitivity and specificity of the ZNF471 hypermethylation for squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) vs tumor and normal vs tumor was above 85% with AUC of 0.937. High methylation and low ZNF471 expression predicted poor overall and recurrence-free survival. We identified -686 to +114 bp as ZNF471 promoter, regulated by methylation using transient transfection and luciferase assays. The promoter CpG site methylation of ZNF471 was significantly different among cancer types and tumor grades. Gal4-based heterologous luciferase reporter gene assays revealed that ZNF471 acts as a transcriptional repressor. The retroviral mediated overexpression of ZNF471 in SiHa and CaSki cells inhibited growth, proliferation, cell migration, invasion; delayed cell cycle progression in vitro by increasing cell doubling time; and reduced tumor growth in vivo in nude mice. ZNF471 overexpression inhibited key members of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), Wnt, and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways. ZNF471 inhibited EMT by directly targeting vimentin as analyzed by bioinformatic analysis, ChIP-PCR, and western blotting. Thus, ZNF471 CpG specific promoter methylation may determine the prognosis of CC and could function as a potential tumor suppressor by targeting EMT signaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samatha Bhat
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India
| | - Shama Prasada Kabekkodu
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India
| | - Divya Adiga
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India
| | - Rayzel Fernandes
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India
| | - Vaibhav Shukla
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India
| | - Poonam Bhandari
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India
| | - Deeksha Pandey
- Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India
| | - Krishna Sharan
- Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India
| | - Kapaettu Satyamoorthy
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Manipal School of Life Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India.
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23
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Chen X, Ashoor H, Musich R, Wang J, Zhang M, Zhang C, Lu M, Li S. epihet for intra-tumoral epigenetic heterogeneity analysis and visualization. Sci Rep 2021; 11:376. [PMID: 33432081 PMCID: PMC7801679 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-79627-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2019] [Accepted: 12/04/2020] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Intra-tumoral epigenetic heterogeneity is an indicator of tumor population fitness and is linked to the deregulation of transcription. However, there is no published computational tool to automate the measurement of intra-tumoral epigenetic allelic heterogeneity. We developed an R/Bioconductor package, epihet, to calculate the intra-tumoral epigenetic heterogeneity and to perform differential epigenetic heterogeneity analysis. Furthermore, epihet can implement a biological network analysis workflow for transforming cancer-specific differential epigenetic heterogeneity loci into cancer-related biological function and clinical biomarkers. Finally, we demonstrated epihet utility on acute myeloid leukemia. We found statistically significant differential epigenetic heterogeneity (DEH) loci compared to normal controls and constructed co-epigenetic heterogeneity network and modules. epihet is available at https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/epihet.html .
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaowen Chen
- grid.249880.f0000 0004 0374 0039The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, 10 Discovery Drive, Farmington, CT 06032-2374 USA
| | - Haitham Ashoor
- grid.249880.f0000 0004 0374 0039The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, 10 Discovery Drive, Farmington, CT 06032-2374 USA
| | - Ryan Musich
- grid.249880.f0000 0004 0374 0039The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, 10 Discovery Drive, Farmington, CT 06032-2374 USA
| | - Jiahui Wang
- grid.249880.f0000 0004 0374 0039The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, 10 Discovery Drive, Farmington, CT 06032-2374 USA
| | - Mingsheng Zhang
- grid.249880.f0000 0004 0374 0039The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, 10 Discovery Drive, Farmington, CT 06032-2374 USA
| | - Chao Zhang
- grid.5386.8000000041936877XWeill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY USA
| | - Mingyang Lu
- grid.249880.f0000 0004 0374 0039The Jackson Laboratory for Mammalian Genetics, Bar Harbor, ME USA
| | - Sheng Li
- grid.249880.f0000 0004 0374 0039The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, 10 Discovery Drive, Farmington, CT 06032-2374 USA ,grid.249880.f0000 0004 0374 0039The Jackson Laboratory Cancer Center, Bar Harbor, ME USA ,grid.208078.50000000419370394Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT USA ,grid.63054.340000 0001 0860 4915Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA
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24
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Lu J, Wilfred P, Korbie D, Trau M. Regulation of Canonical Oncogenic Signaling Pathways in Cancer via DNA Methylation. Cancers (Basel) 2020; 12:E3199. [PMID: 33143142 PMCID: PMC7692324 DOI: 10.3390/cancers12113199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 10/24/2020] [Accepted: 10/28/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Disruption of signaling pathways that plays a role in the normal development and cellular homeostasis may lead to the dysregulation of cellular signaling and bring about the onset of different diseases, including cancer. In addition to genetic aberrations, DNA methylation also acts as an epigenetic modifier to drive the onset and progression of cancer by mediating the reversible transcription of related genes. Although the role of DNA methylation as an alternative driver of carcinogenesis has been well-established, the global effects of DNA methylation on oncogenic signaling pathways and the presentation of cancer is only emerging. In this article, we introduced a differential methylation parsing pipeline (MethylMine) which mined for epigenetic biomarkers based on feature selection. This pipeline was used to mine for biomarkers, which presented a substantial difference in methylation between the tumor and the matching normal tissue samples. Combined with the Data Integration Analysis for Biomarker discovery (DIABLO) framework for machine learning and multi-omic analysis, we revisited the TCGA DNA methylation and RNA-Seq datasets for breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer, and identified differentially methylated genes within the NRF2-KEAP1/PI3K oncogenic pathway, which regulates the expression of cytoprotective genes, that serve as potential therapeutic targets to treat different cancers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Lu
- Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; (J.L.); (P.W.)
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Premila Wilfred
- Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; (J.L.); (P.W.)
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Darren Korbie
- Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; (J.L.); (P.W.)
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Matt Trau
- Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; (J.L.); (P.W.)
- Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia
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25
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Mallik S, Qin G, Jia P, Zhao Z. Molecular signatures identified by integrating gene expression and methylation in non-seminoma and seminoma of testicular germ cell tumours. Epigenetics 2020; 16:162-176. [PMID: 32615059 DOI: 10.1080/15592294.2020.1790108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Testicular germ cell tumours (TGCTs) are the most common cancer in young male adults (aged 15 to 40). Unlike most other cancer types, identification of molecular signatures in TGCT has rarely reported. In this study, we developed a novel integrative analysis framework to identify co-methylated and co-expressed genes [mRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs)] modules in two TGCT subtypes: non-seminoma (NSE) and seminoma (SE). We first integrated DNA methylation and mRNA/miRNA expression data and then used a statistical method, CoMEx (Combined score of DNA Methylation and Expression), to assess differentially expressed and methylated (DEM) genes/miRNAs. Next, we identified co-methylation and co-expression modules by applying WGCNA (Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis) tool to these DEM genes/miRNAs. The module with the highest average Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (PCC) after considering all pair-wise molecules (genes/miRNAs) included 91 molecules. By integrating both transcription factor and miRNA regulations, we constructed subtype-specific regulatory networks for NSE and SE. We identified four hub miRNAs (miR-182-5p, miR-520b, miR-520c-3p, and miR-7-5p), two hub TFs (MYC and SP1), and two genes (RECK and TERT) in the NSE-specific regulatory network, and two hub miRNAs (miR-182-5p and miR-338-3p), five hub TFs (ETS1, HIF1A, HNF1A, MYC, and SP1), and three hub genes (CDH1, CXCR4, and SNAI1) in the SE-specific regulatory network. miRNA (miR-182-5p) and two TFs (MYC and SP1) were common hubs of NSE and SE. We further examined pathways enriched in these subtype-specific networks. Our study provides a comprehensive view of the molecular signatures and co-regulation in two TGCT subtypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saurav Mallik
- Center for Precision Health, School of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston , Houston, TX, USA
| | - Guimin Qin
- Center for Precision Health, School of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston , Houston, TX, USA
| | - Peilin Jia
- Center for Precision Health, School of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston , Houston, TX, USA
| | - Zhongming Zhao
- Center for Precision Health, School of Biomedical Informatics, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston , Houston, TX, USA.,Human Genetics Center, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston , Houston, TX, USA.,MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences , Houston, TX, USA.,Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center , Nashville, TN, USA
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26
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Shao W, Han Z, Cheng J, Cheng L, Wang T, Sun L, Lu Z, Zhang J, Zhang D, Huang K. Integrative Analysis of Pathological Images and Multi-Dimensional Genomic Data for Early-Stage Cancer Prognosis. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL IMAGING 2020; 39:99-110. [PMID: 31170067 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2019.2920608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
The integrative analysis of histopathological images and genomic data has received increasing attention for studying the complex mechanisms of driving cancers. However, most image-genomic studies have been restricted to combining histopathological images with the single modality of genomic data (e.g., mRNA transcription or genetic mutation), and thus neglect the fact that the molecular architecture of cancer is manifested at multiple levels, including genetic, epigenetic, transcriptional, and post-transcriptional events. To address this issue, we propose a novel ordinal multi-modal feature selection (OMMFS) framework that can simultaneously identify important features from both pathological images and multi-modal genomic data (i.e., mRNA transcription, copy number variation, and DNA methylation data) for the prognosis of cancer patients. Our model is based on a generalized sparse canonical correlation analysis framework, by which we also take advantage of the ordinal survival information among different patients for survival outcome prediction. We evaluate our method on three early-stage cancer datasets derived from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project, and the experimental results demonstrated that both the selected image and multi-modal genomic markers are strongly correlated with survival enabling effective stratification of patients with distinct survival than the comparing methods, which is often difficult for early-stage cancer patients.
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27
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Locke WJ, Guanzon D, Ma C, Liew YJ, Duesing KR, Fung KYC, Ross JP. DNA Methylation Cancer Biomarkers: Translation to the Clinic. Front Genet 2019; 10:1150. [PMID: 31803237 PMCID: PMC6870840 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2019.01150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 264] [Impact Index Per Article: 52.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2019] [Accepted: 10/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Carcinogenesis is accompanied by widespread DNA methylation changes within the cell. These changes are characterized by a globally hypomethylated genome with focal hypermethylation of numerous 5’-cytosine-phosphate-guanine-3’ (CpG) islands, often spanning gene promoters and first exons. Many of these epigenetic changes occur early in tumorigenesis and are highly pervasive across a tumor type. This allows DNA methylation cancer biomarkers to be suitable for early detection and also to have utility across a range of areas relevant to cancer detection and treatment. Such tests are also simple in construction, as only one or a few loci need to be targeted for good test coverage. These properties make cancer-associated DNA methylation changes very attractive for development of cancer biomarker tests with substantive clinical utility. Across the patient journey from initial detection, to treatment and then monitoring, there are several points where DNA methylation assays can inform clinical practice. Assays on surgically removed tumor tissue are useful to determine indicators of treatment resistance, prognostication of outcome, or to molecularly characterize, classify, and determine the tissue of origin of a tumor. Cancer-associated DNA methylation changes can also be detected with accuracy in the cell-free DNA present in blood, stool, urine, and other biosamples. Such tests hold great promise for the development of simple, economical, and highly specific cancer detection tests suitable for population-wide screening, with several successfully translated examples already. The ability of circulating tumor DNA liquid biopsy assays to monitor cancer in situ also allows for the ability to monitor response to therapy, to detect minimal residual disease and as an early biomarker for cancer recurrence. This review will summarize existing DNA methylation cancer biomarkers used in clinical practice across the application domains above, discuss what makes a suitable DNA methylation cancer biomarker, and identify barriers to translation. We discuss technical factors such as the analytical performance and product-market fit, factors that contribute to successful downstream investment, including geography, and how this impacts intellectual property, regulatory hurdles, and the future of the marketplace and healthcare system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Warwick J Locke
- Molecular Diagnostics Solutions, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, North Ryde, NSW, Australia.,Probing Biosystems Future Science Platform, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Dominic Guanzon
- Molecular Diagnostics Solutions, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, North Ryde, NSW, Australia.,Probing Biosystems Future Science Platform, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Chenkai Ma
- Molecular Diagnostics Solutions, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, North Ryde, NSW, Australia
| | - Yi Jin Liew
- Molecular Diagnostics Solutions, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, North Ryde, NSW, Australia.,Probing Biosystems Future Science Platform, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Konsta R Duesing
- Molecular Diagnostics Solutions, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, North Ryde, NSW, Australia
| | - Kim Y C Fung
- Molecular Diagnostics Solutions, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, North Ryde, NSW, Australia.,Probing Biosystems Future Science Platform, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Jason P Ross
- Molecular Diagnostics Solutions, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, North Ryde, NSW, Australia.,Probing Biosystems Future Science Platform, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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28
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Sun L, Namboodiri S, Chen E, Sun S. Preliminary Analysis of Within-Sample Co-methylation Patterns in Normal and Cancerous Breast Samples. Cancer Inform 2019; 18:1176935119880516. [PMID: 31631960 PMCID: PMC6778999 DOI: 10.1177/1176935119880516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2019] [Accepted: 09/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
DNA methylation plays a significant role in regulating the expression of certain genes in both cancerous and normal breast tissues. It is therefore important to study within-sample co-methylation, ie, methylation patterns between consecutive sites in a chromosome. In this article, we develop 2 new methods to compare co-methylation patterns between normal and cancerous breast samples. In particular, we investigate the co-methylation patterns of 4 different methylation states/levels separately. Using these 2 methods, we focus on addressing the following questions: How often does 1 methylation state change to other methylation states and how is this change dependent on chromosome distance? What co-methylation patterns do normal and cancerous breast samples have? Do genomic sites with different methylation states/levels have different co-methylation patterns? Our results show that cancerous and normal co-methylation patterns are significantly different. We find that this difference exists even when the physical distance of 2 sites are less than 50 bases. Breast cancer cell lines tend to remain in the same methylation state more often than normal samples, especially for the no/low or high/full methylation states. We also find that the co-methylation region lengths for various methylation states (no/low, partial, and high/full methylation states) are very different. For example, the co-methylation region lengths for partial methylation regions are shorter than the unmethylated or fully methylated regions. Our research may provide a deep understanding of co-methylation patterns. These co-methylation patterns will aid in discovering and understanding new methylation events that may be related to novel biomarkers.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Shuying Sun
- Department of Mathematics, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA
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29
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Schwämmle V, Jensen ON. VSClust: feature-based variance-sensitive clustering of omics data. Bioinformatics 2019; 34:2965-2972. [PMID: 29635359 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bty224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2017] [Accepted: 04/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Motivation Data clustering is indispensable for identifying biologically relevant molecular features in large-scale omics experiments with thousands of measurements at multiple conditions. Optimal clustering results yield groups of functionally related features that may include genes, proteins and metabolites in biological processes and molecular networks. Omics experiments typically include replicated measurements of each feature within a given condition to statistically assess feature-specific variation. Current clustering approaches ignore this variation by averaging, which often leads to incorrect cluster assignments. Results We present VSClust that accounts for feature-specific variance. Based on an algorithm derived from fuzzy clustering, VSClust unifies statistical testing with pattern recognition to cluster the data into feature groups that more accurately reflect the underlying molecular and functional behavior. We apply VSClust to artificial and experimental datasets comprising hundreds to >80 000 features across 6-20 different conditions including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics experiments. VSClust avoids arbitrary averaging methods, outperforms standard fuzzy c-means clustering and simplifies the data analysis workflow in large-scale omics studies. Availability and implementation Download VSClust at https://bitbucket.org/veitveit/vsclust or access it through computproteomics.bmb.sdu.dk/Apps/VSClust. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veit Schwämmle
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark.,VILLUM Center for Bioanalytical Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark
| | - Ole N Jensen
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark.,VILLUM Center for Bioanalytical Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, Denmark
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30
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Amini M, Foroughi K, Talebi F, Aghagolzade Haji H, Kamali F, Jandaghi P, Hoheisel JD, Manoochehri M. GHSR DNA hypermethylation is a new epigenetic biomarker for gastric adenocarcinoma and beyond. J Cell Physiol 2019; 234:15320-15329. [PMID: 30677130 DOI: 10.1002/jcp.28179] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2018] [Accepted: 01/10/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Aberrations of DNA methylation are early events in the development of tumors. In this study, we investigated the DNA methylation status of growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR), a promising pan-cancer biomarker, in gastric cancer (GC). Initially, data sets from DNA methylation and gene expression studies available at Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were analyzed. Confirmation was done on primary tumor specimens and adjacent normal stomach tissue samples. Both analyses showed significant hypermethylation of GHSR. For further validation, The Cancer Genome Atlas data on stomach cancer was used. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis yielded an area under the curve value of 0.85, corroborating its usefulness as a diagnostic marker. A genome-wide comethylation analysis revealed several correlated genes. CREB1 was found to act as an upstream regulator of this gene network. Furthermore, GHSR methylation was found to be a biomarker in several other tumor entities, namely cancers of the bladder, endometrium, esophagus, head and neck, liver, thyroid, kidney, and ovary. Our findings along with previous reports on other types of cancer suggest a high potential of GHSR gene methylation as a pan-cancer biomarker, which could be considered for liquid biopsy applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Amini
- School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
| | - Kobra Foroughi
- School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
| | - Fatemeh Talebi
- School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran
| | - Hemat Aghagolzade Haji
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
| | - Fatemeh Kamali
- Iran National Tumor Bank, Cancer Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Pouria Jandaghi
- Department of Human Genetics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Jörg D Hoheisel
- Division of Functional Genome Analysis (B070), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Mehdi Manoochehri
- School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran.,Molecular Genetics of Breast Cancer (B072), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
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31
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Sun S, Lee YR, Enfield B. Hemimethylation Patterns in Breast Cancer Cell Lines. Cancer Inform 2019; 18:1176935119872959. [PMID: 31496635 PMCID: PMC6716185 DOI: 10.1177/1176935119872959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2019] [Accepted: 08/05/2019] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
DNA methylation is an epigenetic event that involves adding a methyl group to the cytosine (C) site, especially the one that pairs with a guanine (G) site (ie, CG or CpG site), in a human genome. This event plays an important role in both cancerous and normal cell development. Previous studies often assume symmetric methylation on both DNA strands. However, asymmetric methylation, or hemimethylation (methylation that occurs only on 1 DNA strand), does exist and has been reported in several studies. Due to the limitation of previous DNA methylation sequencing technologies, researchers could only study hemimethylation on specific genes, but the overall genomic hemimethylation landscape remains relatively unexplored. With the development of advanced next-generation sequencing techniques, it is now possible to measure methylation levels on both forward and reverse strands at all CpG sites in an entire genome. Analyzing hemimethylation patterns may potentially reveal regions related to undergoing tumor growth. For our research, we first identify hemimethylated CpG sites in breast cancer cell lines using Wilcoxon signed rank tests. We then identify hemimethylation patterns by grouping consecutive hemimethylated CpG sites based on their methylation states, methylation "M" or unmethylation "U." These patterns include regular (or consecutive) hemimethylation clusters (eg, "MMM" on one strand and "UUU" on another strand) and polarity (or reverse) clusters (eg, "MU" on one strand and "UM" on another strand). Our results reveal that most hemimethylation clusters are the polarity type, and hemimethylation does occur across the entire genome with notably higher numbers in the breast cancer cell lines. The lengths or sizes of most hemimethylation clusters are very short, often less than 50 base pairs. After mapping hemimethylation clusters and sites to corresponding genes, we study the functions of these genes and find that several of the highly hemimethylated genes may influence tumor growth or suppression. These genes may also indicate a progressing transition to a new tumor stage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuying Sun
- Department of Mathematics, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA
| | - Yu Ri Lee
- Department of Mathematics, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA
| | - Brittany Enfield
- Global Engineering Systems, Cypress Semiconductor, Austin, TX, USA
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32
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Wei Y, Dong S, Zhu Y, Zhao Y, Wu C, Zhu Y, Li K, Xu Y. DNA co-methylation analysis of lincRNAs across nine cancer types reveals novel potential epigenetic biomarkers in cancer. Epigenomics 2019; 11:1177-1190. [PMID: 31347388 DOI: 10.2217/epi-2018-0138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Aim: The potential functions and prognostic value of lincRNAs with co-methylation events are explored in 9 cancer types. Materials & methods: Here, we evaluated the co-methylation events in promoter and gene-body regions between two lincRNAs across 9 cancer types by constructing a systematic biological framework. Results: The co-methylation events in both promoter and gene-body regions tended to be highly cancer specific. Patient samples could be separated by tumor and normal types according to the eigengenes of universal co-methylation clusters. Functional enrichment results revealed the lincRNAs that brought promoter and gene-body co-methylation events that affected cancer progress through participating in different pathways and could serve as potential prognostic biomarkers. Conclusion: The study provides new insight into the epigenetic regulation in cancer and leads to a potential new direction for epigenetic biomarker discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunzhen Wei
- College of Bioinformatics Science & Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, PR China.,School of Life Science, Faculty of Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, PR China
| | - Siyao Dong
- College of Bioinformatics Science & Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, PR China
| | - Yanjiao Zhu
- College of Bioinformatics Science & Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, PR China
| | - Yichuan Zhao
- College of Bioinformatics Science & Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, PR China
| | - Cheng Wu
- College of Bioinformatics Science & Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, PR China
| | - Yinling Zhu
- College of Bioinformatics Science & Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, PR China
| | - Kun Li
- College of Bioinformatics Science & Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, PR China
| | - Yan Xu
- College of Bioinformatics Science & Technology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150081, PR China
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Yu CY, Xiang S, Huang Z, Johnson TS, Zhan X, Han Z, Abu Zaid M, Huang K. Gene Co-expression Network and Copy Number Variation Analyses Identify Transcription Factors Associated With Multiple Myeloma Progression. Front Genet 2019; 10:468. [PMID: 31156714 PMCID: PMC6533571 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2019.00468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2018] [Accepted: 05/01/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Multiple myeloma (MM) has two clinical precursor stages of disease: monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM). However, the mechanism of progression is not well understood. Because gene co-expression network analysis is a well-known method for discovering new gene functions and regulatory relationships, we utilized this framework to conduct differential co-expression analysis to identify interesting transcription factors (TFs) in two publicly available datasets. We then used copy number variation (CNV) data from a third public dataset to validate these TFs. First, we identified co-expressed gene modules in two publicly available datasets each containing three conditions: normal, MGUS, and SMM. These modules were assessed for condition-specific gene expression, and then enrichment analysis was conducted on condition-specific modules to identify their biological function and upstream TFs. TFs were assessed for differential gene expression between normal and MM precursors, then validated with CNV analysis to identify candidate genes. Functional enrichment analysis reaffirmed known functional categories in MM pathology, the main one relating to immune function. Enrichment analysis revealed a handful of differentially expressed TFs between normal and either MGUS or SMM in gene expression and/or CNV. Overall, we identified four genes of interest (MAX, TCF4, ZNF148, and ZNF281) that aid in our understanding of MM initiation and progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Y Yu
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States.,Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Shunian Xiang
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,National-Regional Key Technology Engineering Laboratory for Medical Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhi Huang
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States
| | - Travis S Johnson
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States.,Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Xiaohui Zhan
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,National-Regional Key Technology Engineering Laboratory for Medical Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhi Han
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Mohammad Abu Zaid
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Kun Huang
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, IN, United States
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Abstract
Background DNA methylation is an epigenetic event that may regulate gene expression. Because of this regulation role, aberrant DNA methylation is often associated with many diseases. Within-sample DNA co-methylation is the similarity of methylation in nearby cytosine sites of a chromosome. It is important to study co-methylation patterns. However, it is not well studied yet, and it is unclear to us what co-methylation patterns normal DNA samples have. Are the co-methylation patterns of the same tissue across several samples different? Are the co-methylation patterns of various tissues of the same sample different? To answer these questions, we conduct analyses using two sets of data: 3-sample-1-tissue (3S1T) and 1-sample-8-tissue (1S8T). Results To study the co-methylation patterns of the two datasets, 3S1T and 1S8T, we investigate the following questions: How often does one methylation state change to other methylation states and how is this change associated with chromosome distance? Based on the 3S1T data, we find there is not significant co-methylation difference among the same spleen tissues of three different samples. However, the analysis results of 1S8T data show that there were significant differences among eight tissues of one sample. For both 3S1T and 1S8T data, we find that the no/low methylation state A and high/full methylation state D tend to remain the same along a chromosome region. We also find that the low/partial methylation state B and partial/high methylation state C tend to change to higher methylation states along a chromosome. Finally, we find that lengths of most co-methylation regions are very short with only a few hundred base pairs. In fact, only a small proportion of methylated regions are longer than 1000 base pairs. Conclusions In this paper, we have addressed a few questions regarding within-sample co-methylation patterns in normal tissues. Our statistical analysis results and answers may help researchers to better understand the biological process of DNA methylation. This may pave the way to develop better analysis methods for future methylation research. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13040-019-0198-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Huang Z, Zhan X, Xiang S, Johnson TS, Helm B, Yu CY, Zhang J, Salama P, Rizkalla M, Han Z, Huang K. SALMON: Survival Analysis Learning With Multi-Omics Neural Networks on Breast Cancer. Front Genet 2019; 10:166. [PMID: 30906311 PMCID: PMC6419526 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2019.00166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 114] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2018] [Accepted: 02/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Improved cancer prognosis is a central goal for precision health medicine. Though many models can predict differential survival from data, there is a strong need for sophisticated algorithms that can aggregate and filter relevant predictors from increasingly complex data inputs. In turn, these models should provide deeper insight into which types of data are most relevant to improve prognosis. Deep Learning-based neural networks offer a potential solution for both problems because they are highly flexible and account for data complexity in a non-linear fashion. In this study, we implement Deep Learning-based networks to determine how gene expression data predicts Cox regression survival in breast cancer. We accomplish this through an algorithm called SALMON (Survival Analysis Learning with Multi-Omics Neural Networks), which aggregates and simplifies gene expression data and cancer biomarkers to enable prognosis prediction. The results revealed improved performance when more omics data were used in model construction. Rather than use raw gene expression values as model inputs, we innovatively use eigengene modules from the result of gene co-expression network analysis. The corresponding high impact co-expression modules and other omics data are identified by feature selection technique, then examined by conducting enrichment analysis and exploiting biological functions, escalated the interpretation of input feature from gene level to co-expression modules level. Our study shows the feasibility of discovering breast cancer related co-expression modules, sketch a blueprint of future endeavors on Deep Learning-based survival analysis. SALMON source code is available at https://github.com/huangzhii/SALMON/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhi Huang
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States.,Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Xiaohui Zhan
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,National-Regional Key Technology Engineering Laboratory for Medical Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Shunian Xiang
- National-Regional Key Technology Engineering Laboratory for Medical Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Travis S Johnson
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Bryan Helm
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Christina Y Yu
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Jie Zhang
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Paul Salama
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Maher Rizkalla
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Zhi Han
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Kun Huang
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, United States.,Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, IN, United States
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Bosschieter J, Nieuwenhuijzen JA, Hentschel A, van Splunter AP, Segerink LI, Vis AN, Wilting SM, Lissenberg-Witte BI, A van Moorselaar RJ, Steenbergen RD. A two-gene methylation signature for the diagnosis of bladder cancer in urine. Epigenomics 2019; 11:337-347. [PMID: 30706728 DOI: 10.2217/epi-2018-0094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
AIM To analyze the potential of 14 cancer-associated genes, including six miRNAs, for bladder cancer (BC) diagnosis in urine. PATIENTS & METHODS DNA methylation levels of 14 genes were analyzed in urine of 72 BC patients and 75 healthy controls using quantitative methylation-specific PCR. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine an optimal marker panel. RESULTS Ten genes were significantly hypermethylated in BC patients. The GHSR/MAL combination showed the best diagnostic performance, reaching a sensitivity of 92% (95% CI: 86-99) and a specificity of 85% (95% CI: 76-94). CONCLUSION We identified a novel two-gene panel with a high diagnostic accuracy for BC that can be applied in a noninvasive, urine-based test.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judith Bosschieter
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Urology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Jakko A Nieuwenhuijzen
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Urology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Anouk Hentschel
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Urology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Annina P van Splunter
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Pathology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Loes I Segerink
- BIOS Lab on a Chip group, MESA+ & MIRA institutes, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
| | - André N Vis
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Urology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Saskia M Wilting
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Pathology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.,Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Birgit I Lissenberg-Witte
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Amsterdam Public Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - R Jeroen A van Moorselaar
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Urology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Renske Dm Steenbergen
- Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Pathology, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Xiang S, Huang Z, Wang T, Han Z, Yu CY, Ni D, Huang K, Zhang J. Condition-specific gene co-expression network mining identifies key pathways and regulators in the brain tissue of Alzheimer's disease patients. BMC Med Genomics 2018; 11:115. [PMID: 30598117 PMCID: PMC6311927 DOI: 10.1186/s12920-018-0431-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Gene co-expression network (GCN) mining is a systematic approach to efficiently identify novel disease pathways, predict novel gene functions and search for potential disease biomarkers. However, few studies have systematically identified GCNs in multiple brain transcriptomic data of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and looked for their specific functions. Methods In this study, we first mined GCN modules from AD and normal brain samples in multiple datasets respectively; then identified gene modules that are specific to AD or normal samples; lastly, condition-specific modules with similar functional enrichments were merged and enriched differentially expressed upstream transcription factors were further examined for the AD/normal-specific modules. Results We obtained 30 AD-specific modules which showed gain of correlation in AD samples and 31 normal-specific modules with loss of correlation in AD samples compared to normal ones, using the network mining tool lmQCM. Functional and pathway enrichment analysis not only confirmed known gene functional categories related to AD, but also identified novel regulatory factors and pathways. Remarkably, pathway analysis suggested that a variety of viral, bacteria, and parasitic infection pathways are activated in AD samples. Furthermore, upstream transcription factor analysis identified differentially expressed upstream regulators such as ZFHX3 for several modules, which can be potential driver genes for AD etiology and pathology. Conclusions Through our state-of-the-art network-based approach, AD/normal-specific GCN modules were identified using multiple transcriptomic datasets from multiple regions of the brain. Bacterial and viral infectious disease related pathways are the most frequently enriched in modules across datasets. Transcription factor ZFHX3 was identified as a potential driver regulator targeting the infectious diseases pathways in AD-specific modules. Our results provided new direction to the mechanism of AD as well as new candidates for drug targets. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12920-018-0431-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shunian Xiang
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China.,Department of Medical & Molecular Genetics, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA
| | - Zhi Huang
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA
| | - Tianfu Wang
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China
| | - Zhi Han
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA
| | - Christina Y Yu
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA.,Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA
| | - Dong Ni
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China.
| | - Kun Huang
- Department of Medicine, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA.
| | - Jie Zhang
- Department of Medical & Molecular Genetics, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA.
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Jiang Z, Cinti C, Taranta M, Mattioli E, Schena E, Singh S, Khurana R, Lattanzi G, Tsinoremas NF, Capobianco E. Network assessment of demethylation treatment in melanoma: Differential transcriptome-methylome and antigen profile signatures. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0206686. [PMID: 30485296 PMCID: PMC6261551 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2018] [Accepted: 10/17/2018] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Background In melanoma, like in other cancers, both genetic alterations and epigenetic underlie the metastatic process. These effects are usually measured by changes in both methylome and transcriptome profiles, whose cross-correlation remains uncertain. We aimed to assess at systems scale the significance of epigenetic treatment in melanoma cells with different metastatic potential. Methods and findings Treatment by DAC demethylation with 5-Aza-2’-deoxycytidine of two melanoma cell lines endowed with different metastatic potential, SKMEL-2 and HS294T, was performed and high-throughput coupled RNA-Seq and RRBS-Seq experiments delivered differential profiles (DiP) of both transcriptomes and methylomes. Methylation levels measured at both TSS and gene body were studied to inspect correlated patterns with wide-spectrum transcript abundance levels quantified in both protein coding and non-coding RNA (ncRNA) regions. The DiP were then mapped onto standard bio-annotation sources (pathways, biological processes) and network configurations were obtained. The prioritized associations for target identification purposes were expected to elucidate the reprogramming dynamics induced by the epigenetic therapy. The interactomic connectivity maps of each cell line were formed to support the analysis of epigenetically re-activated genes. i.e. those supposedly silenced by melanoma. In particular, modular protein interaction networks (PIN) were used, evidencing a limited number of shared annotations, with an example being MAPK13 (cascade of cellular responses evoked by extracellular stimuli). This gene is also a target associated to the PANDAR ncRNA, therapeutically relevant because of its aberrant expression observed in various cancers. Overall, the non-metastatic SKMEL-2 map reveals post-treatment re-activation of a richer pathway landscape, involving cadherins and integrins as signatures of cell adhesion and proliferation. Relatively more lncRNAs were also annotated, indicating more complex regulation patterns in view of target identification. Finally, the antigen maps matched to DiP display other differential signatures with respect to the metastatic potential of the cell lines. In particular, as demethylated melanomas show connected targets that grow with the increased metastatic potential, also the potential target actionability seems to depend to some degree on the metastatic state. However, caution is required when assessing the direct influence of re-activated genes over the identified targets. In light of the stronger treatment effects observed in non-metastatic conditions, some limitations likely refer to in silico data integration tools and resources available for the analysis of tumor antigens. Conclusion Demethylation treatment strongly affects early melanoma progression by re-activating many genes. This evidence suggests that the efficacy of this type of therapeutic intervention is potentially high at the pre-metastatic stages. The biomarkers that can be assessed through antigens seem informative depending on the metastatic conditions, and networks help to elucidate the assessment of possible targets actionability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhijie Jiang
- Center for Computational Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States of America
| | | | | | - Elisabetta Mattioli
- CNR Institute of Molecular Genetics, Bologna, Italy
- IRCCS Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisa Schena
- CNR Institute of Molecular Genetics, Bologna, Italy
- Endocrinology Unit, Department of Medical & Surgical Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, S Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna, Italy
| | - Sakshi Singh
- Institute of Clinical Physiology, CNR, Siena, Italy
| | - Rimpi Khurana
- Center for Computational Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States of America
| | - Giovanna Lattanzi
- CNR Institute of Molecular Genetics, Bologna, Italy
- IRCCS Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute, Bologna, Italy
| | - Nicholas F. Tsinoremas
- Center for Computational Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States of America
- Department of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States of America
| | - Enrico Capobianco
- Center for Computational Science, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Rhee JK, Kim SJ, Zhang BT. Identifying DNA Methylation Modules Associated with a Cancer by Probabilistic Evolutionary Learning. IEEE COMPUT INTELL M 2018. [DOI: 10.1109/mci.2018.2840659] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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40
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Zhang Q. A powerful nonparametric method for detecting differentially co-expressed genes: distance correlation screening and edge-count test. BMC SYSTEMS BIOLOGY 2018; 12:58. [PMID: 29769129 PMCID: PMC5956795 DOI: 10.1186/s12918-018-0582-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2017] [Accepted: 03/08/2018] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Background Differential co-expression analysis, as a complement of differential expression analysis, offers significant insights into the changes in molecular mechanism of different phenotypes. A prevailing approach to detecting differentially co-expressed genes is to compare Pearson’s correlation coefficients in two phenotypes. However, due to the limitations of Pearson’s correlation measure, this approach lacks the power to detect nonlinear changes in gene co-expression which is common in gene regulatory networks. Results In this work, a new nonparametric procedure is proposed to search differentially co-expressed gene pairs in different phenotypes from large-scale data. Our computational pipeline consisted of two main steps, a screening step and a testing step. The screening step is to reduce the search space by filtering out all the independent gene pairs using distance correlation measure. In the testing step, we compare the gene co-expression patterns in different phenotypes by a recently developed edge-count test. Both steps are distribution-free and targeting nonlinear relations. We illustrate the promise of the new approach by analyzing the Cancer Genome Atlas data and the METABRIC data for breast cancer subtypes. Conclusions Compared with some existing methods, the new method is more powerful in detecting nonlinear type of differential co-expressions. The distance correlation screening can greatly improve computational efficiency, facilitating its application to large data sets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qingyang Zhang
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
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