New Association Between Diabetes Mellitus and Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a global issue that has affected the lives of many people all over the world. This disorder, which is also called the mother of all diseases, possesses high pathogenicity and results in the emergence of many disorders. One of the known correlated diseases is pancreatic cancer which can be accompanied by diabetes mellitus. Therefore, finding the association between these diseases and common genes is urgent.

Objective: In this study, in order to survey the relationship between diabetes mellitus and pancreatic cancer, the common genes of these disorders were analyzed by bioinformatics tools.

Methods: For this purpose, we screened 17 shared genes from microarray data downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. In addition, the relationship between identified genes was constructed by STRING and DAVID tools.

Results: In total, 112 genes were identified to be differentially expressed. Among these, 17 genes were found to be common, including two genes that were down-regulated and others that were upregulated. Other analyses showed that most of the genes were enriched in Vibrio cholera infection and the mTOR signaling pathway. The biological processes of such genes included oxygen and gas transport, phagosome acidification, and GTPase activity.

Conclusion: In this study, 17 common genes that had not previously been considered in diabetes and pancreatic cancer were screened, which can be further considered for clinical approaches and in vitro studies.

Keywords: DAVID tools; Diabetes; bioinformatics; gene expression omnibus; pancreatic cancer; string.