A Comprehensive Analysis of Metabolomics and Transcriptomics in Cervical Cancer

Sci Rep. 2017 Feb 22:7:43353. doi: 10.1038/srep43353.

Abstract

Cervical cancer (CC) still remains a common and deadly malignancy among females in developing countries. More accurate and reliable diagnostic methods/biomarkers should be discovered. In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis of metabolomics (285 samples) and transcriptomics (52 samples) on the potential diagnostic implication and metabolic characteristic description in cervical cancer. Sixty-two metabolites were different between CC and normal controls (NOR), in which 5 metabolites (bilirubin, LysoPC(17:0), n-oleoyl threonine, 12-hydroxydodecanoic acid and tetracosahexaenoic acid) were selected as candidate biomarkers for CC. The AUC value, sensitivity (SE), and specificity (SP) of these 5 biomarkers were 0.99, 0.98 and 0.99, respectively. We further analysed the genes in 7 significantly enriched pathways, of which 117 genes, that were expressed differentially, were mainly involved in catalytic activity. Finally, a fully connected network of metabolites and genes in these pathways was built, which can increase the credibility of our selected metabolites. In conclusion, our biomarkers from metabolomics could set a path for CC diagnosis and screening. Our results also showed that variables of both transcriptomics and metabolomics were associated with CC.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / analysis*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Humans
  • Metabolome*
  • Middle Aged
  • ROC Curve
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / pathology*

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor