Identifying Cancer genes by combining two-rounds RWR based on multiple biological data

Abstract

Abstract Background It’s a very urgent task to identify cancer genes that enables us to understand the mechanisms of biochemical processes at a biomolecular level and facilitates the development of bioinformatics. Although a large number of methods have been proposed to identify cancer genes at recent times, the biological data utilized by most of these methods is still quite less, which reflects an insufficient consideration of the relationship between genes and diseases from a variety of factors. Results In this paper, we propose a two-rounds random walk algorithm to identify cancer genes based on multiple biological data (TRWR-MB), including protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, pathway network, microRNA similarity network, lncRNA similarity network, cancer similarity network and protein complexes. In the first-round random walk, all cancer nodes, cancer-related genes, cancer-related microRNAs and cancer-related lncRNAs, being associated with all the cancer, are used as seed nodes, and then a random walker walks on a quadruple layer heterogeneous network constructed by multiple biological data. The first-round random walk aims to select the top score k of potential cancer genes. Then in the second-round random walk, genes, microRNAs and lncRNAs, being associated with a certain special cancer in corresponding cancer class, are regarded as seed nodes, and then the walker walks on a new quadruple layer heterogeneous network constructed by lncRNAs, microRNAs, cancer and selected potential cancer genes. After the above walks finish, we combine the results of two-rounds RWR as ranking score for experimental analysis. As a result, a higher value of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) is obtained. Besides, cases studies for identifying new cancer genes are performed in corresponding section. Conclusion In summary, TRWR-MB integrates multiple biological data to identify cancer genes by analyzing the relationship between genes and cancer from a variety of biological molecular perspective.