Title

Authors

Luca Giacomelli¹, Oluwadayo Oluwadara², Giacomo Chiappe¹ Antonio Barone¹, Francesco Chiappelli^2*, Ugo Covani¹

Affiliation

¹Tirrenian Stomatologic Institute, Via Aurelia 335, Lido di Camaiore (Lucca), Italy; ²UCLA School of Dentistry, Division of Oral Biology and Medicine

Email

FChiappelli@dentistry.ucla.edu

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received November 25, 2009; Accepted December 15, 2009; Published December 31, 2009

Abstract

The leader gene approach is a data mining method based on the systematic search for genes involved in a specific process and their ranking according to the number of interconnections with the other genes identified. The genes with the strongest interconnections are termed leader genes, since they may be supposed to play an important role in the process. The potential of malignant progression of OLP to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is still not completely clear. In this study, the leader gene approach is applied to investigate the association between OLP and OSCC at a molecular level. Results were integrated with those obtained in an experimental analysis (see paper 1 of this series). Genes involved in OLP and OSCC were identified by systematic queries to dedicated databases. Interconnections among identified genes were calculated and given a confidence value using STRING database. Leader genes were identified by clustering genes according to their interconnections. This theoretical analysis shows that OLP and OSCC share two leader genes: TP53 and CDKN1A, involved in the PI3K signalling events mediated by AKT pathway. This finding and those obtained in the experimental analysis suggest the possible involvement of some key genes/proteins LCK, PIK3CA, BIRC5, TP53 and CDKN1A in the malignant progression from OLP to OSCC. Moreover, these findings support the role of some molecular pathways, namely IL2 signalling events mediated by PI3K, PI3K signalling events mediated by AKT, and, possibly, Aurora A signalling in the association between OLP and OSCC.

Keywords

computational biology; gene interactions; genomics; oral lichen planus; oral carcinoma.

Citation

Giacomelli et al., Bioinformation 4(6): 258-262 (2009)

Edited by

P. Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

Copyright

Publisher

Copyright Transfer Agreement

The authors of published articles in Bioinformation automatically transfer the copyright to the publisher upon formal acceptance. However, the authors reserve right to use the information contained in the article for non commercial purposes.

License

This is an open-access article, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original author and source are credited.