Biomedical Research

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major disease and a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. The expression of various genes changes in CRC. This study aimed to investigate differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in CRC tissues and to predict important pathways associated with CRC. Methods: DEGs between cancerous and non-cancerous tissues from 17 patients with CRC were screened using Affymetrix HG-U133 Plus 2.0 microarray data downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE32323). Next, functional and pathway analysis of DEGs was performed by Gene Ontology (GO) analysis and WikiPathways analysis using GeneSpring 14.5 software. Results and discussion: Compared with non-cancerous tissues, 3,856 DEGs were identified in the CRC samples, which included 2,015 upregulated DEGs and 1,841 downregulated DEGs, with the selection criteria of p < 0.05 and a two-fold change. The GO analysis identified 448 and 606 GO terms using the upregulated and downregulated DEGs, respectively. Interestingly, exosomes and extracellular vesicles were associated with the downregulated DEGs. A total of 240 pathways were associated with DEGs in CRC tissues. Taken above, I have identified candidate DEGs in CRC tissues and pathways. These candidate genes and pathways could be therapeutic targets for CRC.

Author(s): Mitsuru Chiba
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