WGCNA reveals key gene modules regulated by the combined treatment of colon cancer with PHY906 and CPT11
BIOSCIENCE REPORTS
Authors: Xing, Shuqin; Wang, Yafei; Hu, Kaiwen; Wang, Fen; Sun, Tao; Li, Quanwang
Abstract
Irinotecan (CPT11) is one of the most effective drugs for treating colon cancer, but its severe side effects limit its application. Recently, a traditional Chinese herbal preparation, named PHY906, has been proved to be effective for improving therapeutic effect and reducing side effects of CPT11. The aim of the present study was to provide novel insight to understand the molecular mechanism underlying PHY906-CPT11 intervention of colon cancer. Based on the GSE25192 dataset, for different three treatments (PHY906, CPT11, and PHY906-CPT11), we screened out differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and constructed a co-expression network by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify hub genes. The key genes of the three treatments were obtained by merging the DEGs and hub genes. For the PHY906-CPT11 treatment, a total of 18 key genes including Eif4e, Prr15, Anxa2, Ddx5, Tardbp, Skint5, Prss12 and Hnrnpa3, were identified. The results of functional enrichment analysis indicated that the key genes associated with PHY906-CPT11 treatment were mainly enriched in `superoxide anion generation' and `complement and coagulation cascades'. Finally, we validated the key genes by Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) and RT-PCR analysis, the results indicated that EIF4E, PRR15, ANXA2, HNRNPA3, NCF1, C3AR1, PFDN2, RGS10, GNG11, and TMSB4X might play an important role in the treatment of colon cancer with PHY906-CPT11. In conclusion, a total of 18 key genes were identified in the present study. These genes showed strong correlation with PHY906-CPT11 treatment in colon cancer, which may help elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism of PHY906-CPT11 treatment in colon cancer.
Identification of differentially expressed genes related to metabolic syndrome induced with high-fat diet in E3 rats
EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Authors: Lan, Xi; Li, Dongmin; Zhong, Bo; Ren, Juan; Wang, Xuan; Sun, Qingzhu; Li, Yue; Liu, Lee; Liu, Li; Lu, Shemin
Abstract
Understanding the genes differentially expressing in aberrant organs of metabolic syndrome (MetS) facilitates the uncovering of molecular mechanisms and the identification of novel therapeutic targets for the disease. This study aimed to identify differentially expressed genes related to MetS in livers of E3 rats with high-fat-diet-induced metabolic syndrome (HFD-MetS). E3 rats were fed with high-fat diet for 24 weeks to induce MetS. Then, suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) technology was used to identify the genes differentially expressed between HFD-MetS and control E3 rat livers. Twenty positive recombinant clones were chosen randomly from forward subtractive library and sent to sequence. BLAST analysis in GenBank database was used to determine the property of each cDNA fragment. In total, 11 annotated genes, 3 ESTs, and 2 novel gene fragments were identified by SSH technology. The expression of four genes (Alb, Pip4k2a, Scd1, and Tf) known to be associated with MetS and other five genes (Eif1, Rnase4, Rps12, Rup2, and Tmsb4) unknown to be relevant to MetS was significantly up-regulated in the livers of HFD-MetS E3 rats compared with control rats using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). By analyzing the correlations between the expression of these nine genes and serum concentrations of TG, Tch, HDL-C, and LDL-C, we found that there were significant positive correlations between TG and the expression of five genes (Alb, Eif1, Pip4k2a, Rps12, and Tmsb4x), Tch and three genes (Rnase4, Scd1, and Tmsb4x), and LDL-C and two genes (Rnase4 and Scd1), as well there were significant negative correlations between HDL-C and the expression of three genes (Rup2, Scd1, and Tf). This study provides important clues for unraveling the molecular mechanisms of MetS.