Functional modules integrating essential cellular functions are predictive of the response of leukaemia cells to DNA damage.
BACKGROUND
Childhood B-precursor lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common paediatric malignancy. Despite the fact that 80% of ALL patients respond to anti-cancer drugs, the patho-physiology of this disease is still not fully understood. mRNA expression-profiling studies that have been performed have not yet provided novel insights into the mechanisms behind cellular response to DNA damage. More powerful data analysis techniques may be required for identifying novel functional pathways involved in the cellular responses to DNA damage.


RESULTS
In order to explore the possibility that unforeseen biological processes may be involved in the response to DNA damage, we have developed and applied a novel procedure for the identification of functional modules in ALL cells. We have discovered that the overall activity of functional modules integrating protein degradation and mRNA processing is predictive of response to DNA damage.


BACKGROUND
Supplementary material including R code, additional results, experimental datasets, as well as a detailed description of the methodology are available at http://www.bip.bham.ac.uk/vivo/fumo.html.


BACKGROUND
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Sameith
Katrin
K
School of Biosciences and Institute of Biomedical Research, CRUK Institute for Cancer Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B152TT, UK.
Antczak
Philipp
P
Marston
Elliot
E
Turan
Nil
N
Maier
Dieter
D
Stankovic
Tanja
T
Falciani
Francesco
F
D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological