Title: A mutational co-occurrence network in gastric cancer based on an association index

Authors: Sungjin Park; Seungyoon Nam

Addresses: Gachon Institute of Genome Medicine and Science, Gachon University Gil Medical Center, College of Medicine, Gachon University, Incheon 21565, South Korea ' Gachon Institute of Genome Medicine and Science, Gachon University Gil Medical Center, College of Medicine, Gachon University, Incheon 21565, South Korea

Abstract: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most lethal, as well as one of the heterogeneous, cancer types. Possible GC molecular mechanisms could be revealed by mutational co-occurrence analyses. Despite a known association between mutational co-occurrences and GC signalling contexts, no specific mechanisms have been identified. Here, known GC signalling contexts, including cancer hallmarks (DNA repair, WNT signalling, Notch signalling), were inspected in terms of mutational co-occurrences, and in particular, for a specific GC phenotype, microsatellite status (stable or low or high instability). By correlating mutational co-occurrences of gene pairs within cancer hallmarks, we constructed mutational co-occurring networks for each type of microsatellite status. As a result, we found that one status type, microsatellite-stable (MSS), associated with mutation of JAG1, likely co-occurs for genes belonging to the WNT and Notch signalling pathways. Our study may support the feasibility of a new therapeutic strategy of designing compounds that target Notch signalling, in MSS GC patients.

Keywords: gastric cancer; microsatellite stability status; network models; association index; Notch; Wnt; DNA repair.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDMB.2018.092159

International Journal of Data Mining and Bioinformatics, 2018 Vol.20 No.1, pp.67 - 76

Received: 08 Mar 2018
Accepted: 09 Mar 2018

Published online: 05 Jun 2018 *

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