Exploring genes of rectal cancer for new treatments based on protein interaction network

Objective: To develop a protein-protein interaction network of rectal cancer, which is based on genetic genes as well as to predict biological pathways underlying the molecular complexes in the network. In order to analyze and summarize genetic markers related to diagnosis and prognosis of rectal cancer.Methods: the genes expression profile was downloaded from OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man) database; the protein-protein interaction network of rectal cancer was established by Cytoscape; the molecular complexes in the network were detected by Clusterviz plugin and the pathways enrichment of molecular complexes were performed by DAVID online and Bingo (The Biological Networks Gene Ontology tool). Results and Discussion: A total of 127 rectal cancer genes were identified to differentially express in OMIM Database. The protein-protein interaction network of rectal cancer was contained 966 nodes (proteins), 3377 edges (interactive relationships) and 7 molecular complexes (scoreu003e7.0). Regulatory effects of genes and proteins were focused on cell cycle, transcription regulation and cellular protein metabolic process. Genes of DDK1, sparcl1, wisp2, cux1, pabpc1, ptk2 and htra1 were significant nodes in PPI network. The discovery of featured genes which were probably related to rectal cancer, has a great significance on studying mechanism, distinguishing normal and cancer tissues, and exploring new treatments for rectal cancer.