Review of the article „Identification of novel therapeutic target genes in colon cancer by integrative analysis“, verified by Publons, Web of Science

Abstract

Abstract Colon cancer is one of the most common tumors and have a has a high fatality rate in United States. Both genetic and epigenetic factors contribute to colon cancer. Nowadays, gene expression profiles with microarrays of colon cancer are emerging in GEO database and TCGA database. Though some studies have revealed promising colorectal carcinoma-associated genes or gene signatures, the results of these data may have discrepancies due to sample size or heterogeneity. Robust rank aggregation (RRA) is an unbiased bioinformatics method to integrate individual microarray profiles and can reveal a relatively accurate gene expression signatures based on individual microarray profiles. In the present studies, we performed RRA to integrate microarray profiles of colon cancer in GEO database. We found 105 differentially expressed genes between colon cancer tissue and normal adjacent mucosa. The results of GO function and KEGG pathways enrichment analysis showed that IL-17 signaling and TNF signaling pathway are the most upreguluated pathways during colonic carcinogenesis. PPI network analysis of top 20 differentially expressed genes indicated that upregulated genes MS4A12, CLCA4, GUCA2B and downregulated genes GDF15, CXCL8 and MMPs played a significant role in colonic carcinogenesis. Our study would pave a way to explore therapeutic target genes and genetic mechanism of colon cancer.