Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the major causes of cancer deaths across the world. Patients survival time at the time of diagnosis depends largely on the stage of the tumor. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms promoting cancer progression from early stages to high-grade stages is essential for implementing therapeutic approaches. To this end, we performed a unique meta-analysis flowchart by identifying differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in some test datasets verified by the validation datasets. Datasets from two types of transcriptomic technologies (Microarray and Next Generation Sequencing) have been used from three different databases (Gene Expression Omnibus, ArrayExpress and The Cancer Genome Atlas) to ensure the accuracy of the results. DEGs were employed to construct a protein-protein interaction network (PPI). Then, a smaller network was extracted from the PPI network based on a shortest-path scoring algorithm. 12 genes were recognized that their expression is different between primary and metastatic tumors. Utilizing a network analysis point of view 27 genes around them were selected. Among the total number of 39 identified DEGs, we proposed a number of them that their expression induction or suppression alone or in combination with each other would inhibit tumor progression or metastasis. Some of them were also presented as diagnostic biomarkers for colorectal cancer. They are involved in cell proliferation, energy production under hypoxic conditions, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and angiogenesis. Finally, TMEM131, DARS and SORD genes were identified in this study which had never been associated with any kind of cancer neither as a biomarker nor curative target. As a result, the present transcriptomic meta-analysis flowchart would help identify potential molecular targets for treatment of not only colorectal cancer but also different types of cancer.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest