Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous subtype of breast cancers with poor prognosis. The etiology of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is involved in various biological signal cascades and multifactorial aberrations of genetic, epigenetic and microenvironment. New therapeutic for TNBC is urgently needed because surgery and chemotherapy are the only available modalities nowadays. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms would be a great challenge because they are triggered by cascade signaling pathways, genetic and epigenetic regulations, and drug-target interactions. This would allow the design of multi-molecule drugs for the TNBC and non-TNBC. In this study, in terms of systems biology approaches, we proposed a systematic procedure for systems medicine design toward TNBC and non-TNBC. For systems biology approaches, we constructed a candidate genome-wide genetic and epigenetic network (GWGEN) by big databases mining and identified real GWGENs of TNBC and non-TNBC assisting with corresponding microarray data by system identification and model order selection methods. After that, we applied the principal network projection (PNP) approach to obtain the core signaling pathways denoted by KEGG pathway of TNBC and non-TNBC. Comparing core signaling pathways of TNBC and non-TNBC, essential carcinogenic biomarkers resulting in multiple cellular dysfunctions including cell proliferation, autophagy, immune response, apoptosis, metastasis, angiogenesis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and cell differentiation could be found. In order to propose potential candidate drugs for the selected biomarkers, we designed filters considering toxicity and regulation ability. With the proposed systematic procedure, we not only shed a light on the differences between carcinogenetic molecular mechanisms of TNBC and non-TNBC but also efficiently proposed candidate multi-molecule drugs including resveratrol, sirolimus, and prednisolone for TNBC and resveratrol, sirolimus, carbamazepine, and verapamil for non-TNBC.
Keywords: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC); genome-wide genetic and epigenetic network (GWGEN); multi-molecule drugs; non-TNBC; systems medicine design.