Gene expression profiling and protein-protein network analysis revealed prognostic hub biomarkers linking cancer risk in type 2 diabetic patients

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cancer are highly prevalent diseases imposing major health burden globally. Several epidemiological studies indicate increased susceptibility to cancer in T2DM patients. However, genetic factors linking T2DM with cancer are poorly studied so far. We used computational approach on the raw gene expression data of peripheral blood mononuclear cells of Homo sapiens available at the gene expression omnibus (GEO) database, to identify shared differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in T2DM and three common cancer types namely, pancreatic (PC), liver (LC) and breast cancer (BC). Additional functional and pathway enrichment analysis of identified common DEGs highlighted involvement of important biological pathways including cell cycle events, immune system process, cell morphogenesis, gene expression and metabolism. Furthermore, we retrieved the PPI network for crucial DEGs obtained from above analysis to deduce molecular level interactions. Based on the result of network analysis, we found 8, 5 and 9 common hub genes in T2DM vs PC, T2DM vs LC and T2DM vs BC, respectively. Overall, our analysis identified important genetic markers potentially able to predict the chances of pancreatic, liver and breast cancer onset in T2DM patients.