scholarly journals Weighted gene co-expression network analysis identifies potential candidate biomarkers for adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiyong Lai ◽  
Wenhui Yang ◽  
Weibin Li ◽  
Tiantian Zhang ◽  
Kai Jia ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most common kind of malignant tumor, and commonly leads to death. As a subtype of gastric cancer, adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction (AEG), accounts for about 50% of all gastric cancer cases. So far, the systematic co-expression analysis of this tumor has not fully explained its pathogenesis. The purpose of this study was to construct RNAs co-expression networks to predict candidate hub genes associated with the tumorigenesis of AEG. Methods: The RNA-seq data of 22 AEG patients was processed with weighted gene co-expression network analysis strategy. Differentiate the modules with clinical tumor markers and preservation, and carry out gene ontology and pathway enrichment analysis. We identified the co-expression modules and used GO and KEGG terms to investigated the functional enrichment of co-expression genes, suggesting that blue and brown modules are related to the biological processes of tumorigenesis. Results: Twenty-five distinct co-expression gene modules were identified, and as the top hub genes of tumorigenic gene modules, CD93, TRIM28, SLC3A2, CBX4, PATL1, and ZNF473 with high intramodular connectivity were assumed as intramodular hub genes in AEG. Conclusion: The weighted gene co-expression network analysis conducted in this study screened out CD93, TRIM28, SLC3A2, CBX4, PATL1, and ZNF473 may act as candidate biomarker in GC and AEG.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
XU LIU ◽  
Li Yao ◽  
Jingkun Qu ◽  
Lin Liu ◽  
XU LIU ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Gastric cancer is a rather heterogeneous type of malignant tumor. Among the several classification system, Lauren classification can reflect biological and pathological differences of different gastric cancer.Method to provide systematic biological perspectives, we employ weighted gene co-expression network analysis to reveal transcriptomic characteristics of gastric cancer. GSE15459 and TCGA STAD dataset were downloaded. Co-expressional network was constructed and gene modules were identified. Result Two key modules blue and red were suggested to be associated with diffuse gastric cancer. Functional enrichment analysis of genes from the two modules was performed. Validating in TCGA STAD dataset, we propose 10 genes TNS1, PGM5, CPXM2, LIMS2, AOC3, CRYAB, ANGPTL1, BOC and TOP2A to be hub-genes for diffuse gastric cancer. Finally these ten genes were associated with gastric cancer survival. Conclusion More attention need to be paid and further experimental study is required to elucidate the role of these genes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunze Liu ◽  
Xiaojie Sun ◽  
Aijun Qu

As an evolutionarily conserved mechanism, developmental neuronal remodeling is needed for the proper wiring of the nervous system and is critical for understanding the neurodevelopment mechanisms. Previous studies have shown that during metamorphosis lots of Drosophila melanogaster mushroom body neurons experience stereotypic remodeling. However, the related regulators and downstream executors of pathways are yet unclear, especially studies of transcriptional gene co-expression analysis of nervous systems remain insufficient. In this study, we develop a weighted gene co-expression network (WGCNA) to classify gene modules associated with neuronal remodeling. Moreover, functional and pathway enrichment analysis with protein-protein network construction is applied to detect high informative hub genes in the targeted gene module. Thus, we select a total of five hub genes that play critical roles in neuronal remodeling and identify them with functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction network. Overall, this study provides insight into the underlying molecular mechanism of developmental neuronal remodeling in Drosophila melanogaster.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunze Liu ◽  
Xiaojie Sun ◽  
Aijun Qu

As an evolutionarily conserved mechanism, developmental neuronal remodeling is needed for the proper wiring of the nervous system and is critical for understanding the neurodevelopment mechanisms. Previous studies have shown that during metamorphosis lots of Drosophila melanogaster mushroom body neurons experience stereotypic remodeling. However, the related regulators and downstream executors of pathways are yet unclear, especially studies of transcriptional gene co-expression analysis of nervous systems remain insufficient. In this study, we develop a weighted gene co-expression network (WGCNA) to classify gene modules associated with neuronal remodeling. Moreover, functional and pathway enrichment analysis with protein-protein network construction is applied to detect high informative hub genes in the targeted gene module. Thus, we select a total of five hub genes that play critical roles in neuronal remodeling and identify them with functional enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction network. Overall, this study provides insight into the underlying molecular mechanism of developmental neuronal remodeling in Drosophila melanogaster.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiamei Liu ◽  
Shengye Liu ◽  
Xianghong Yang

BackgroundDespite advances in the understanding of neoplasm, patients with cervical cancer still have a poor prognosis. Identifying prognostic markers of cervical cancer may enable early detection of recurrence and more effective treatment.MethodsGene expression profiling data were acquired from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. After data normalization, genes with large variation were screened out. Next, we built co-expression modules by using weighted gene co-expression network analysis to investigate the relationship between the modules and clinical traits related to cervical cancer progression. Functional enrichment analysis was also applied on these co-expressed genes. We integrated the genes into a human protein-protein interaction (PPI) network to expand seed genes and build a co-expression network. For further analysis of the dataset, the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was used to identify seed genes and their correlation to cervical cancer prognosis. Verification was further conducted by qPCR and the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) database to measure the expression of hub genes.ResultsUsing WGCNA, we identified 25 co-expression modules from 10,016 genes in 128 human cervical cancer samples. After functional enrichment analysis, the magenta, brown, and darkred modules were selected as the three most correlated modules for cancer progression. Additionally, seed genes in the three modules were combined with a PPI network to identify 31 tumor-specific genes. Hierarchical clustering and Gepia results indicated that the expression quantity of hub genes NDC80, TIPIN, MCM3, MCM6, POLA1, and PRC1 may determine the prognosis of cervical cancer. Finally, TIPIN and POLA1 were further filtered by a LASSO model. In addition, their expression was identified by immunohistochemistry in HPA database as well as a biological experiment.ConclusionOur research provides a co-expression network of gene modules and identifies TIPIN and POLA1 as stable potential prognostic biomarkers for cervical cancer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Nianwu Wang ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Wenli Mao ◽  
Nazuke Kuerbantayi ◽  
Nuan Jia ◽  
...  

Background. The majority of lung cancers are adenocarcinomas, with the proportion being 40%. The patients are mostly diagnosed in the middle and late stages with metastasis and easy recurrence, which poses great challenge to the treatment and prognosis. Platinum-based chemotherapy is a primary treatment for adenocarcinoma, which frequently causes drug resistance. As a result, it is important to uncover the mechanisms of the chemoresponse of adenocarcinoma to platinum-based chemotherapy. Methods. The genes from the dataset GSE7880 were gathered into gene modules with the assistance of weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA), the gene trait significance absolute value (|GS|), and gene module memberships (MM). The genes from hub gene modules were calculated with a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis in order to obtain a screening map of hub genes. The hub genes with both a high |GS| and MM and a high degree were selected. Furthermore, genes in the hub gene modules also went through a Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis. Results. 11 hub genes in four hub gene modules (LY86, ACTR2, CDK2, CKAP4, KPNB1, RBBP4, SMAD4, MYL6, RPS27, TSPAN2, and VAMP2) were chosen as the significant hub genes. Through the GO function enrichment analysis, it was indicated that four modules were abundant in immune system functions (floralwhite), amino acid biosynthetic process (lightpink4), cell chemotaxis (navajowhite2), and targeting protein (paleturquoise). Four hub genes with the highest |GS| were verified by prognostic analysis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Wang ◽  
Huaixin Zheng ◽  
Jiayu Zhang ◽  
Yashu Wang ◽  
Pingping Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) has been one of the most common malignancies worldwide, which tends to get worse for the growth and aging of the population and westernized lifestyle. However, there is no effective treatment due to the complexity of its etiology. Hence, the pathogenic mechanisms remain to be clearly defined. In the present study, we adopted an advanced analytical method—Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) to identify the key gene modules and hub genes associated with CRC. In total, five gene co-expression modules were highly associated with CRC, of which, one gene module correlated with CRC significantly positive (R = 0.88). Functional enrichment analysis of genes in primary gene module found metabolic pathways, which might be a potentially important pathway involved in CRC. Further, we identified and verified some hub genes positively correlated with CRC by using Cytoscape software and UALCAN databases, including PAICS, ATR, AASDHPPT, DDX18, NUP107 and TOMM6. The present study discovered key gene modules and hub genes associated with CRC, which provide references to understand the pathogenesis of CRC and may be novel candidate target genes of CRC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhixin Wu ◽  
Yinxian Wen ◽  
Guanlan Fan ◽  
Hangyuan He ◽  
Siqi Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Steroid-induced osteonecrosis of the femoral head (SONFH) is a chronic and crippling bone disease. This study aims to reveal novel diagnostic biomarkers of SONFH. Methods The GSE123568 dataset based on peripheral blood samples from 10 healthy individuals and 30 SONFH patients was used for weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) screening. The genes in the module related to SONFH and the DEGs were extracted for Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Genes with |gene significance| > 0.7 and |module membership| > 0.8 were selected as hub genes in modules. The DEGs with the degree of connectivity ≥5 were chosen as hub genes in DEGs. Subsequently, the overlapping genes of hub genes in modules and hub genes in DEGs were selected as key genes for SONFH. And then, the key genes were verified in another dataset, and the diagnostic value of key genes was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results Nine gene co-expression modules were constructed via WGCNA. The brown module with 1258 genes was most significantly correlated with SONFH and was identified as the key module for SONFH. The results of functional enrichment analysis showed that the genes in the key module were mainly enriched in the inflammatory response, apoptotic process and osteoclast differentiation. A total of 91 genes were identified as hub genes in the key module. Besides, 145 DEGs were identified by DEGs screening and 26 genes were identified as hub genes of DEGs. Overlapping genes of hub genes in the key module and hub genes in DEGs, including RHAG, RNF14, HEMGN, and SLC2A1, were further selected as key genes for SONFH. The diagnostic value of these key genes for SONFH was confirmed by ROC curve. The validation results of these key genes in GSE26316 dataset showed that only HEMGN and SLC2A1 were downregulated in the SONFH group, suggesting that they were more likely to be diagnostic biomarkers of SOFNH than RHAG and RNF14. Conclusions Our study identified that two key genes, HEMGN and SLC2A1, might be potential diagnostic biomarkers of SONFH.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Pan ◽  
Jian-Hao Liu

Abstract Background Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a heterogeneous carcinoma that the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in the tumor initiation, progression, and migration are largely unclear. The purpose of the present study was to identify key biomarkers and small-molecule drugs for NPC screening, diagnosis, and therapy via gene expression profile analysis. Methods Raw microarray data of NPC were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and analyzed to screen out the potential differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The key modules associated with histology grade and tumor stage was identified by using weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA). Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses of genes in the key module were performed to identify potential mechanisms. Candidate hub genes were obtained, which based on the criteria of module membership (MM) and high connectivity. Then we used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to evaluate the diagnostic value of hub genes. The Connectivity map database was further used to screen out small-molecule drugs of hub genes. Results A total of 430 DEGs were identified based on two GEO datasets. The green gene module was considered as key module for the tumor stage of NPC via WGCNA analysis. The results of functional enrichment analysis revealed that genes in the green module were enriched in regulation of cell cycle, p53 signaling pathway, cell part morphogenesis. Furthermore, four DEGs-related hub genes in the green module were considered as the final hub genes. Then ROC revealed that the final four hub genes presented with high areas under the curve, suggesting these hub genes may be diagnostic biomarkers for NPC. Meanwhile, we screened out several small-molecule drugs that have provided potentially therapeutic goals for NPC. Conclusions Our research identified four potential prognostic biomarkers and several candidate small-molecule drugs for NPC, which may contribute to the new insights for NPC therapy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Wei Xu ◽  
Jian Xu ◽  
Zhiqiang Wang ◽  
Yuequan Jiang

Objective. Esophageal cancer (ESCA) is one of the most aggressive malignancies globally with an undesirable five-year survival rate. Here, this study was conducted for determining specific functional genes linked with ESCA initiation and progression. Methods. Gene expression profiling of ESCA was curated from TCGA (containing 160 ESCA and 11 nontumor specimens) and GSE38129 (30 paired ESCA and nontumor tissues) datasets. Differential expression analysis was conducted between ESCA and nontumor tissues with adjusted p value <0.05 and |log2fold-change|>1. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) was conducted for determining the ESCA-specific coexpression modules and genes. Thereafter, ESCA-specific differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were intersected. Functional enrichment analysis was then presented with clusterProfiler package. Protein-protein interaction was conducted, and hub genes were determined. Association of hub genes with pathological staging was evaluated, and survival analysis was presented among ESCA patients. Results. This study determined 91 ESCA-specific DEGs following intersection of DEGs and ESCA-specific genes in TCGA and GSE38129 datasets. They were remarkably linked to cell cycle progression and carcinogenic pathways like the p53 signaling pathway, cellular senescence, and apoptosis. Ten ESCA-specific hub genes were determined, containing ASPM, BUB1B, CCNA2, CDC20, CDK1, DLGAP5, KIF11, KIF20 A, TOP2A, and TPX2. They were prominently associated with pathological staging. Among them, KIF11 upregulation was in relation to undesirable prognosis of ESCA patients. Conclusion. Collectively, we determined ESCA-specific coexpression modules and hub genes, which offered the foundation for future research concerning the mechanistic basis of ESCA.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Yin ◽  
Miao Wang ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Tong Chen ◽  
Ge Song ◽  
...  

Abstract Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease and the mechanism underlying PD pathogenesis is incompletely understood. Increasing evidence indicates that microRNA (miRNA) plays critical regulatory role in the pathogenesis of PD. This study aimed to determine the miRNA-mRNA regulatory network for PD. The differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmis) and genes (DEGs) between PD patients and healthy donors were screened from miRNA dataset GSE16658 and mRNA dataset GSE100054 downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Target genes of the DEmis were selected when predicted by 3 or 4 online databases and overlapped with DEGs from GSE100054. Next, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis was conducted by Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) and Metascape analytic tool. The correlation between the screened genes and PD was evaluated by the online tool Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). The protein-protein interactions (PPI) network was built by STRING platform. Finally, we testify the expression of members of the miRNA-mRNA regulatory network in the blood samples collected from PD patients and healthy donors by using qRT-PCR. 1505 upregulated and 1302 downregulated DEGs, 77 upregulated DEmis and 112 downregulated DEmis were preliminarily screened from GEO database. Through further functional enrichment analysis, 10 PD-related hub genes were selected, including RAC1, IRS2, LEPR, PPARGC1A, CAMKK2, RAB10, RAB13, RAB27B, RAB11A and JAK2, which were mainly involved in Rab protein signaling transduction, AMPK signaling pathway and signaling by Leptin. The miRNA-mRNA regulatory network was constructed with 10 hub genes and their interacting miRNAs overlapped with DEmis, including miR-30e-5p, miR-142-3p, miR-101-3p, miR-32-3p, miR-508-5p, miR-642a-5p, miR-19a-3p and miR-21-5p. Analysis on clinical samples verified significant upregulation of LEPR and downregulation of miR-101-3p in PD patients compared with healthy donors. In the study, the potential miRNA-mRNA regulatory network was constructed in PD, which may provide novel insight into pathogenesis and treatment of PD.


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