Bioinformatics analysis reveals significant genes and pathways to target for oral squamous cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of our study was to explore the molecular mechanisms in the process of oral squamous cells carcinoma (OSCC) development.


METHODS
We downloaded the affymetrix microarray data GSE31853 and identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between OSCC and normal tissues. Then Gene Ontology (GO) and Protein-Protein interaction (PPI) networks analysis was conducted to investigate the DEGs at the function level.


RESULTS
A total 372 DEGs with logFC| >1 and P value < 0.05 were obtained , including NNMT, BAX, MMP9 and VEGF. The enriched GO terms mainly were associated with the nucleoplasm, response to DNA damage stimuli and DNA repair. PPI network analysis indicated that GMNN and TSPO were significant hub proteins and steroid biosynthesis and synthesis and degradation of ketone bodies were significantly dysregulated pathways.


CONCLUSIONS
It is concluded that the genes and pathways identified in our work may play critical roles in OSCC development. Our data provides a comprehensive perspective to understand mechanisms underlying OSCC and the significant genes (proteins) and pathways may be targets for therapy in the future.
Department of Stomatology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China E-mail : qianjiang22@hotmail.com.
Qian
Q
Jiang
You-Cheng
YC
Yu
Xiao-Jun
XJ
Ding
Yin
Y
Luo
Hong
H
Ruan
D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000235:genetics; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D018307:Neoplasms, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods; D060066:Protein Interaction Maps / Q000235:genetics; D059467:Transcriptome / Q000235:genetics*