title: Signal propagation in protein interaction network during colorectal cancer progression.
abstract: Colorectal cancer is generally categorized into the following four stages according to its development or serious degree: Dukes A, B, C, and D. Since different stage of colorectal cancer actually corresponds to different activated region of the network, the transition of different network states may reflect its pathological changes. In view of this, we compared the gene expressions among the colorectal cancer patients in the aforementioned four stages and obtained the early and late stage biomarkers, respectively. Subsequently, the two kinds of biomarkers were both mapped onto the protein interaction network. If an early biomarker and a late biomarker were close in the network and also if their expression levels were correlated in the Dukes B and C patients, then a signal propagation path from the early stage biomarker to the late one was identified. Many transition genes in the signal propagation paths were involved with the signal transduction, cell communication, and cellular process regulation. Some transition hubs were known as colorectal cancer genes. The findings reported here may provide useful insights for revealing the mechanism of colorectal cancer progression at the cellular systems biology level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130033, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yu-Fei
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Yudong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Kuo-Chen
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Chou
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps / Q000235:genetics*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor