Gene Co-expression analysis predicts genetic aberration loci associated with colon cancer metastasis

Int J Comput Biol Drug Des. 2013;6(1-2):60-71. doi: 10.1504/IJCBDD.2013.052202. Epub 2013 Feb 21.

Abstract

Gene Co-expression Network (GCN) analysis has been widely used for gene function and disease biomarker discovery. In this study, we present a workflow for identifying GCN associated with colon cancer metastasis. The workflow includes dense network discovery from weighted GCN followed by network activity analysis using a mutual information-based approach to identify gene networks related to metastasis. Our findings suggest several genomic regions as genetic aberrations related to colon cancer malignancy including chr11q13, 20q13, 8q24 and 14q22-23. Our work also demonstrates a novel way of interpreting gene co-expression analysis results besides functional relationships and the effectiveness of the mutual information based network analysis in detecting subtle changes between different disease states.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Colonic Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Colonic Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Colonic Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • DNA Copy Number Variations
  • Databases, Genetic
  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Genetic Loci
  • Humans
  • Neoplasm Metastasis