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Researchers Establish Intracellular Interaction Network in Breast Cancer

Researchers Establish Intracellular Interaction Network in Breast Cancer

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HSE University researchers have identified the genes that play a crucial role in breast cancer metastasis. The results of the study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Every human cell includes a huge number of various molecules: DNA, RNA, proteins, etc. One of the essential classes of molecules that interact with each other are microRNAs, along with their target genes and transcription factors. MicroRNAs are small molecules, which can directly reduce the concentration (expression) of target genes, while transcription factors are able to both increase and reduce the expression of microRNAs and genes. In healthy cells, such interactions are necessary for normal operation, while in cancer cells, certain interactions ‘get broken’, thus allowing a tumour to spread and elude treatment.

Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology experts Stepan Nersisyan and Alexander Tonevitsky, together with their colleagues from Lomonosov MSU (Alexei Galatenko, Vladimir Galatenko), have developed an algorithm that recreates the networks of intercellular interactions in cancer cells. They use this program to detect the key molecules responsible for breast cancer metastasis.

The main component of the breast cancer interaction network. Blue nodes represent TFs, red nodes represent genes, green nodes represent miRNAs. The higher node degree is, the bigger is the node size. Edges are colored according to node types they connect.

The researchers applied machine learning methods to formulate a model that establishes interaction networks of microRNAs, their targets and transcription factors. A key feature of the program is its ability to integrate different data sources, including various interaction databases and expression profiles of the studied molecules in sample sets (e.g., in real tumours). The programme is available online to anybody interested.

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